It’s difficult to decide if the efforts Syrian President Bashar Assad made to avoid a face-to-face meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Sunday are more reminiscent of the third grade, or of a guy steering clear of his ex at a party. In any case, at the Union for the Mediterranean summit in Paris the dictator from Damascus managed to spend a whole day near, but not with, Ehud Olmert.
Assad slipped out of the room when Olmert got up to speak. When Olmert made the rounds shaking hands, Assad turned around to talk to his interpreter. And at the Bastille Day parade, Olmert managed to get within a few feet of Assad, but there was no eye contact.
“We are not seeking symbols,” Assad told French TV.
I guess flowers and chocolate wouldn’t have been enough.
Ha’aretz shows in pictures how it all went down.
