Iran's foreign minister said Monday a cease-fire and a prisoner swap would be "acceptable and fair" in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was speaking after talks with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa.
"We believe that we should think of an acceptable and fair (deal) to resolve this," he said. "In fact, there can be a cease-fire followed by a prisoner swap."
On Sunday, Lebanese officials said that Israel had sent the terms of a possible cease-fire through Italian mediators. The terms were the release of two captured Israeli soldiers, and a Hizbullah pullback to roughly 20 miles from the Israeli-Lebanese border.
"The circumstances prevailing in the region are not in the interests of the Zionist entity," he said. "The attack launched by Israel was orchestrated."
Meanwhile, a senior European Union official returned from the Middle East on Monday sounding pessimistic about the chance of a cease-fire. Javier Solana, the EU's foreign and security chief, said the best that could be hoped for was a "de-escalation" of the fighting. He was to brief a meeting of EU foreign ministers on his weekend talks in Beirut.
Solana, who met with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Sunday in Beirut, said a possible cease-fire was still out of reach. "At this point in time this is something everybody would like to have. But I think we are a little bit far, still far from that situation." He called the situation "very serious, very grave."
"I think we have to make all the efforts ... to de-escalate the situation and not to enter into a dynamic of action-reaction," he told reporters as he arrived at the EU foreign ministers' monthly meeting.
