Washington, January 27: US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has completed a series of meetings with major Middle East players and will return to the region in the “near future,” the US State Department said Tuesday.
Mitchell “completed a series of meetings in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt,” said spokesman Marc Toner, adding that Washington remained committed to “achieving our goal of comprehensive peace in the Middle East.”
Mitchell on Sunday shuttled between occupied Jerusalem and Amman in his second attempt in a week to persuade Israeli and Palestinian leaders to relaunch peace talks.
Without divulging any details of Mitchell’s meetings, Toner said “he continued the two-pronged approach we have consistently pursued” of encouraging both sides to agree on permanent status issues, and helping the Palestinians prepare for statehood.
“The two objectives are mutually reinforcing. Each is essential. Neither can be attained without the other,” the spokesman said.
Mitchell, Toner added, “will be following up with the parties in the coming days and he will return to the region in the near future.”
A Palestinian official told said on Monday that Mitchell presented Palestinian and Israeli leaders with a new initiative aimed at “creating an atmosphere” for the relaunching of peace talks suspended more than a year ago.
The United States has been trying for months to convince both sides to return to the negotiating table, but the Palestinians have refused to do so unless Israel halts all settlement growth in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel illegally occupied in 1967.
All settlements are illegal under international law.
Washington initially backed that demand but has more recently pressed both sides to return to the talks immediately and praised a limited 10-month settlement slowdown enacted by Israeli hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November.
Israel has blamed the Palestinians for the impasse.
—Agencies