Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has met with Bush and Blair, yet he can't seem to get on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's (photo, right) radar screen.

The latest round of comedy comes courtesy of Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem (photo, left), who said that Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has missed his chance to visit Damascus. According to Moallem, Siniora procrastinated on visiting after the Syrians told a friend of a friend that the gates of Damascus were open, and that Siniora was now permitted to visit his holiness, the president of Syria.

Unfortunately those high and mighty gates are now closed, at least that's what Moallem is claiming.

Let's do lunch

Siniora has been trying to visit Damascus to discus critical issues, including the delineation of the Lebanon-Syria border and to push for diplomatic embassies in both Beirut and Damascus.

The drama over a simple diplomatic visit has exposed a severe lack of interest on the part of the Syrian regime to better ties with Lebanon's government. Previously president Assad said that he only meets with other nations' presidents. When put in the uncomfortable situation of meeting Siniora at the Arab Summit in Sudan, Assad said that they needed an "agenda" prior to his visiting Damascus.

Lebanon needs to urgently resolve the status of the borders with Syria, in order to proceed to reclaim the Shebaa Farms from the Israelis. Syria clearly prefers to keep things in an ambiguous state, including diplomatic relations.

The pigeon and the message

According to an interview with the Kuwaiti al Anba newspaper published Monday, Moallem charged that his government had notified Siniora of the date for his expected visit through Speaker Nabih Berri when he was in Damascus last month.

"However, the prime minister, according to our understanding, procrastinated and did not come on the date that was specified to him," Moallem said.

In this day and age of modern technology, a simple phone call, or an e-vite even would have sufficed. Instead, the Syrian president decided to go through a pigeon messenger.

Let's do coffee

The presidential aspirant, Michel Aoun, had some advice for Siniora on how to go about his official visit, solve the dispute with Syria the Lebanese way: "Let's knock on their door and say we're here for coffee."

Siniora said he had been expecting an official invitation according to protocol.

On May 16, the U.N. Security Council issued Resolution 1680 putting more pressure on Syria to respond to Lebanon's demands for border demarcation and embassy exchanges.

Syria rejected the resolution calling its unprecedented intervention in bilateral affairs.

Sources: Ya Libnan, Naharnet