13 May 2011
Last updated at 12:48 ET
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.
A round of talks collapsed last year over Israel’s refusal to stop building settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Mr Mitchell, 77, was appointed to the role 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.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a series of White House-brokered peace talks in September.
But those discussions fell apart soon after when Israel declined to extend
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