US president Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell resigned today, after nearly two and a half years on a difficult quest for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr Obama described Mr Mitchell as "one of the finest public servants that our nation has ever had". Mr Mitchell was a Democratic Senator from Maine from 1980 until 1995, serving as Senate majority leader from 1989.
He was the first US special envoy for Northern Ireland, under President Bill Clinton, from 1995 until 2000. He played an important rule in the conclusion of the Good Friday peace accord in 1998.
Mr Mitchell saw fostering peace in Northern Ireland as a precedent for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "We had 700 days of failure and one day of success," he said when Mr Obama appointed him, the day after he took office in January 2009. "For most of the time, progress was nonexistent or very slow."
Mitchell's deputy, David Hale, will serve as the acting envoy, Mr Obama said.
Regarding the conflict in Northern Ireland, Mr Mitchell said he "formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended. Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings."
Both President Obama and Mr Mitchell, in his resignation letter, noted that when he assumed the role of special envoy, Mr Mitchell, now age 77, intended to serve only two years.
Mr Mitchell's resignation occurs at a time of apparent stalemate in Middle East Peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has continued to seize Palestinian land.
A recent accord between the ruling Palestinian faction Fatah and the Islamist Hamas further complicates matters, because Israel refuses to negotiate with Hamas. Palestinian moves to seek a UN resolution recognising an independent Palestinian state in September have enraged Mr Netanyahu's government.
Mr Obama's spokesman Jay Carney said; "The President's commitment remains as firm as when he took office. This is an extraordinarily hard issue."
In a statement, Mr Obama called Mr Mitchell "a tireless advocate for peace" .
He said Mr Mitchell "took on the toughest job imaginable and worked gruelling hours to advance... the cause of peace."