Italian Premier Says Soviet Union’s Mideast Moves Not Way to Serve Peace

Premier Emilio Colombo criticized today the Soviet Union’s attempt to gain a foothold in the Middle East as “not the way to serve peace in that afflicted area.” In reply to a request by a Communist Party speaker that his government support the Arab-Palestinian position and the idea of an “Arab-Israeli state,” Premier Colombo said: “Peace in the Mideast cannot come by one-sided superiority. This even the Communists know, who actually declared the right to existence of all Mideast states, and thus also of Israel.” But the Communists, he said, “though knowing how intricate and delicate the situation is and how mixed are the rights and wrongs, do not resist the temptation to second the expectations of one party only.” That, he continued, “is not the way to serve peace in that afflicted area, but by understanding the feelings, fears and hopes of both sides, without taking part, and so facilitating their concurrences.”

Premier Colombo called the cease-fire “only a tiny flame of hope” that “needs strengthening in both antagonists.” He said that a cessation of hostilities in the Suez Canal area was the first step toward the establishment of peace throughout the Mediterranean area, which he said had been disturbed by a Soviet military presence that threatened to transform it into a superpower confrontation zone. Dr. Mohammed H. El-Zayyat. head of the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations, said here before flying to New York yesterday that all nations in this part of the world want a Mideast peace and that Egypt will do its best to help achieve it. “Peace,” he said, “is a good thing, and all good things have a price. Only a just peace is real peace, and we want real peace.” Asked to forecast the outcome of the upcoming peace talks, Dr. El-Zayyat quoted what he said was an Egyptian proverb: “Where there is life there is hope. We are alive and therefore we do not despair.”