Mitchell back to the Middle East

U.S. special envoy on Middle East peace George Mitchell is headed back to the region next week, State Department spokesman Robert Wood announced yesterday.

"Special Envoy Mitchell will travel to the Middle East beginning April 13 to advance the goal of the two-state solution and comprehensive peace in the region," Wood said in a statement. "He is scheduled to meet with key officials in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Egypt, the Gulf, and North Africa. Special Envoy Mitchell’s aim for this trip is to discuss next steps in moving the parties toward a lasting peace that will benefit all the people of the region."

Mitchell’s exact itinerary is still being worked out, State Department officials said. Though it will be Mitchell’s third trip to the region since being appointed Obama’s Middle East peace envoy, it will be his first trip since the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formed.

"The main event [of Mitchell’s trip] will be our first meeting with Netanyahu as prime minister," an administration official told The Cable.  "A more substantive kind of discussion than before."

Last week, Israel’s new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said the Annapolis peace process had "no validity."

Obama seemed to push back on that, telling Turkey’s parliament Monday that he would actively pursue a two-state solution based on the Road Map and agreements reached in Annapolis. "Let me be clear: The United States strongly supports the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security," Obama said. "That is a goal shared by Palestinians, Israelis, and people of goodwill around the world. That is a goal that the parties agreed to in the road map and at Annapolis. That is a goal that I will actively pursue as President of the United States."

UPDATE: In a piece mapping the possible fault lines in the Obama-Netanyahu relationship, JTA’s Ron Kampeas explains what it means when Lieberman rejects Annapolis but says he supports the road map. "Lieberman’s explicit — even derisive — rejection of the Annapolis process signaled a possible major strategic difference between the United States and Israel. The road map had emphasized sequencing, a major concession to Israeli demands that the Palestinian Authority shows it is capable of containing terrorist violence before it achieves statehood. The previous administrations in both countries — Olmert in Israel and Bush in the United States — agreed to leapfrog the sequencing requirement after Hamas forced moderates out of the Gaza Strip in 2006; it was no longer considered reasonable to expect Mahmoud Abbas, the P.A. president, to be responsible for controlling an area where his forces had no presence. The result was the Annapolis process, which encouraged the sides to come up with final status solutions as a means of enticing Gaza Palestinians to reject the militancy of their Hamas overlords. … Lieberman made it clear that was off the table: Israel was returning to an expectation of a holistic end to violence before it agreed to advance the peace process."