Obama accepts resignation of his special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell

President Barack Obama on Friday accepted the resignation of his special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who has served in the post for two years.

In a statement obtained by Al Arabiya, President Obama said the United States remained “committed to peace in the Middle East and to building on George’s hard work and progress toward achieving this goal.”

President Obama added that the Deputy Middle East Envoy, David Hale, was asked to serve as the Acting Envoy, expressing “confidence in David’s ability to continue to make progress in this important effort.”

In his resignation letter to President Obama, Mr. George Mitchell wrote, “When I accepted your request to serve as US Special Envoy for Middle East Peace my intention was to serve for two years. More than two years having passed I hereby resign, effective May 20, 2011. I trust this will provide sufficient time for an effective transition.”

Mr.Senator Mitchell, who managed against all odds to broker the historic Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland in 1998 ending decades of bitter conflict, has been indefatigable in his efforts in the Middle East.

But two years on and despite numerous trips and closed-door talks, Israel and the Palestinians are no closer to achieving a long-coveted peace accord, which the United States hopes to see result in two nations living side by side.

Both sides have shown themselves unwilling to compromise on some of the thorniest issues at the heart of the conflict, such as Israel’'s continued settlement building in the occupied Palestinian lands and the final status of Jerusalem, claimed by both as their capital.

Washington’'s last bid to re-launch direct peace talks between the two sides in September 2010 failed less than a month later, when Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank.

The political landscape has also been muddied after the secular Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas signed a surprise reconciliation unity deal with the Islamist movement Hamas last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced the deal as a “hard blow to the peace process.”

(Mustapha Ajbaili, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: [email protected].)