Syrian President Bashar Assad this week told Italy's La Repubblica newspaper that he and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert were just a stone's throw away from a peace deal last year.
At 11am on 13 July 1375, dignitaries and eminent farmers from both valleys met atop the 6, 500ft Col de la Pierre St-Martin mountain pass, laid their hands together on the boundary stone and declared their peaceful intent.