When he took the job, Mr Mitchell, shown with Israeli PM Netanyahu, said he knew it would be hard Saturday, 14 May 2011
US Mid-East peace envoy resigns
When he took the job, Mr Mitchell, shown with Israeli PM Netanyahu, said he knew it would be hard US envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is to resign after two years in the role, US media reports say.
Mr Mitchell, a former senator and broker of the peace deal in Northern Ireland, is stepping down for personal reasons, the Associated Press reported.
He has shuttled between the Israelis and Palestinians trying to bring the two sides together for peace talks.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama remained committed to the peace process.
"This is a hard issue, an extraordinarily hard issue," Mr Carney told reporters.
The White House is expected officially to announce Mr Mitchell's resignation on Friday afternoon.
Mr Mitchell, 77, was appointed Middle East envoy by President Barack Obama in early 2009.
He led nearly two years of proximity talks, in which he functioned as an intermediary between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, shuttling back and forth between the two sides.
His efforts culminated in September in a short round of direct, White House-brokered talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
But the negotiations quickly fell apart after Israel declined to extend a moratorium on construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Mr Mitchell was unable to push the two sides to restart the talks, and his travel to the region slowed significantly after December.
BBC state department correspondent Kim Ghattas in Washington says that if Mr Mitchell sensed a peace deal were within reach, it is unlikely he would be quitting his job.
His departure is likely to be a sign the White House wants to adopt a new approach, our correspondent says.
It could decide to push harder for peace, but it is more likely that this administration has decided to take a step back, she adds.
The news comes as Mr Obama is expected to make a speech next week on US policy in the Middle East and his administration's views on the recent sweep of pro-democracy uprisings there.
Also, Mr Netanyahu is travelling to Washington next week to press the US to boycott any Palestinian government that includes Hamas, which governs Gaza.
Hamas and Fatah, the secularist movement that runs the Palestinian Authority government in parts of the West Bank, last week signed a reconciliation agreement paving the way for a joint interim government and elections next year.
Mr Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role with President Bill Clinton in brokering the 1998 Good Friday peace accords in Northern Ireland.
The talks he chaired led to a ceasefire by the IRA and set the scene for a reconciliation between the two sides that would have once been unimaginable.
In 2000, President George Bush appointed him to lead a commission on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his final report, he called for an end to Israeli settlement activity and for Palestinians to prevent militant attacks and punish those responsible.
Later, he investigated steroid doping in professional baseb
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