US Syria claims raise wider doubts

By Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News

More than half a year after the Israeli air strike that destroyed the alleged nuclear reactor under construction in Syria, Washington's release of what it says are still images of the facility before the raid amounts to the diplomatic equivalent of throwing a very large rock into a deep pool.

The ramifications could be considerable, both for the Middle East and for the future of North Korea's own nuclear weapons programme.

Further distrust has been sown between the United States and the UN's nuclear watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

And even on Capitol Hill Democrat lawmakers are angry that the administration apparently sat on this evidence for some considerable time.

Shades of Iraq?

Briefings about alleged weapons of mass destruction programmes have a lot to live down in the wake of the US experience in Iraq.

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