Italian Socialist Leader Says There is Room for Jewish and Palestinian States

Pietro Nenni, the Italian Socialist leader, declared in Milan yesterday that there is room in the Middle East for both a Jewish State and a Palestinian state. He accused the Big Powers of substituting themselves for the United Nations and lacking the will to promote direct or indirect mediation between the conflicting parties. Mr. Nenni made his remarks on the Middle East in the course of an election campaign speech. “There is space in the Mideast for the State of Israel guaranteed in its historic individuality and its frontiers,” he said. “There is space to restore nationhood and a state to the Palestinian people and there is space for the Arab countries to develop themselves,” he said. The Socialist leader warned of the increasing Soviet military presence in Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea which, he said, dragged the Middle East conflict into the orbit of Big Power interests.