Sometimes international diplomacy seems more like a high-stakes high school dance. Only the stakes if Billy and Tommy don't like each other are a lot higher than who gets to be prom king and dance with the pretty cheerleader.

So what do you do if you're a world leader and you're invited to a conference along with the neighbor you are at war with?

Orchestrate strange diplomatic pirouettes on the world stage so you don't even have to make eye contact, of course.

That's how Syrian President Bashar Assad and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dealt with sharing the stage in Paris last week.

Assad and Olmert are overseeing slowly evolving peace talks being mediated by Turkey where even the diplomats aren't talking to each other.

For now, Israel and Syria are taking part in so-called "proximity talks," where Turkey shuttles back and forth, relaying messages between Syrian and Israeli mediators in the same place, but different rooms.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had tried to orchestrate a historic Assad-Olmert handshake at the Paris meeting -- to no avail.

Assad said there was no point in doing so without real progress on peace talks.

In Paris, Assad even walked out of an Olmert speech and told French TV that Syria was "not seeking symbols."

Then, Olmert and Assad were on stage together and stood within striking distance of each other.

Assad kept his back turned to Olmert and tried to navigate on the stage without having to look Olmert in the eye.

As Olmert was embracing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Assad shuffled behind him with the Emir of Qatar, who offered a kind of personal shield for Assad so he could pass Olmert before abruptly turning around and leaving Assad standing somewhat awkwardly alone on the stage.

The Haaretz newspaper called it an "awkward moment." Maariv billed it as a "historic photograph" of the two leaders in the same frame. Yedioth Ahronoth called it a "relative failure."

According to Maariv, members of the audience shouted at the two to shake hands, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon offered to facilitate the gesture, which Olmert, reading the tea leaves, declined.

Still, the Turkish-mediated talks are slowly moving forward. Turkey is trying to prod the two sides into talking to each other without Turkey relaying messages.

There are any number of things that could scuttle the talks. Assad has said there can be no real progress until President Bush leaves office, by which point Olmert, fighting an ever-expanding political corruption investigation, may no longer be prime minister.

There may yet come a day when Syria and Israel do settle their differences.

For now, they will continue their diplomatic pirouettes.

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