European Jewish Press (Link) - Yossi Lempkowicz (January 22, 2009)
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has welcomed as “good news” a report that US President Barack Obama has asked former Senator George Mitchell, who helped broker the 1998 peace deal in Northern Ireland, to become his Middle East envoy. “I know him very well, he is going to do a very good job,” Solana said at a press conference in Brussels after a meeting between the 27 EU Foreign Ministers and their Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
At the end of the Clinton administration, Mitchell, 75, was appointed to lead an international commission to investigate the causes of violence in the Middle East. He released a report in 2001 that called for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank and a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism. Solana contributed to this report.
Mitchell is viewed as a diplomatic heavyweight who may bring more balance to Washington’s relationships in the region, the New York Times wrote. "He’s neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian," said Martin Indyk,, a former US ambassador to Israel and an adviser to the Clinton administration.
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