Two senior Italian diplomats met here yesterday with Foreign Minister Abba Eban following visits to Amman and Cairo. Although no details of the meeting were disclosed, it was learned from reliable sources that they told Mr. Eban the Egyptian and Jordanian positions on the Middle East conflict were “quite intransigent.”
Carlo Perrone-Capone, deputy director of the Foreign Ministry political affairs section in Rome, and Uberto Bozzini, chief of the Middle Eastern department at the Italian Foreign Ministry, are visiting the Middle East on a special fact-finding mission for Foreign Minister Giuseppe Medici. They will return to Rome tomorrow after conferences with officials of the Prime Minister’s office, the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense. They denied that there was any intention of Italy serving as a mediator in the Middle East dispute. They said the purpose of their trip was to gather information for their Government on the prospects of settling the Arab-Israeli conflict and the status of the Jarring mission.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman expressed satisfaction yesterday with the announced pause in the mission of Dr. Jarring which will begin when he completes his current round of visits to Middle East capitals. UN Secretary-General U Thant announced Tuesday that Dr. Jarring was resuming his duties as Sweden’s Ambassador to Russia although he will not resign his UN mediation post. He will hold a new round of discussions with Middle East officials in mid-January. The spokesman said the plan seemed “sound and realistic” as it will give the governments concerned an opportunity to review their positions. He said Jordan and Egyptian would have a chance to reconsider their refusals to enter into detailed and factual discussion of problems involved in promoting peace. The spokesman said that Mr. Eban informed Dr. Jarring that he was willing to resume contact with him at any suitable time and place, when they met on Cyprus this week.
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