Washington : Mitchell the Obama administration's special Middle East peace envoy, has resigned after more than two years of trying to press Israel and the Palestinians into negotiations, US officials said.
The White House announced on Friday that the former senator and broker of the Northern Ireland peace deal had stepped down for personal reasons.
The White House announced on Friday that the former senator and broker of the Northern Ireland peace deal had stepped down for personal reasons.
Accepting Mitchell's resignation, Barack Obama, the US president, said in a statement that the veteran mediator "has contributed immeasurably to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security".
"As a nation, we remain committed to peace in the Middle East and to building on George's hard work and progress toward achieving this goal," he said.
David Hale, the deputy Middle East envoy, has been asked to serve as the acting envoy by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.
"I have every confidence in David's ability to continue to make progress in this important effort," Obama said.
Mitchell, 77, had spent much of the last two years shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to restart long-stalled peace talks.
Direct peace talks resumed briefly last year but broke down over Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.
Faced with deadlock, the US in December scrapped efforts to relaunch direct peace talks and Mitchell has not visited the region since then.
"As a nation, we remain committed to peace in the Middle East and to building on George's hard work and progress toward achieving this goal," he said.
David Hale, the deputy Middle East envoy, has been asked to serve as the acting envoy by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.
"I have every confidence in David's ability to continue to make progress in this important effort," Obama said.
Mitchell, 77, had spent much of the last two years shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to restart long-stalled peace talks.
Direct peace talks resumed briefly last year but broke down over Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.
Faced with deadlock, the US in December scrapped efforts to relaunch direct peace talks and Mitchell has not visited the region since then.
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