USIP experts provide analysis on the departure of Middle East Envoy George Mitchell.
May 13, 2011
Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell’s resignation May 13 could be a blow to the Middle East peace process – or a spur to action – just days before President Obama is expected to give a major foreign policy speech on the region.
Mitchell is leaving the job after two “mostly futile years” pressing the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their differences, according to a report in The New York Times May 13.
The United States Institute of Peace’s Robin Wright says the departure is a setback to American diplomatic objectives in the region because Mitchell had a proven track record in mediating peace, deep institutional knowledge in foreign policy, and “enormous credibility” in the international community.
“In other words,” she says, “he had the heft necessary to take on one of the world’s oldest and thorniest conflicts.”
The timing of the departure is awkward, she says, because the U.S. faces a “confluence of pivotal events in the region,” including the Arab uprisings and the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. That creates what could be a moment for action on peace.
Earlier in the day, Wright and others spoke at USIP in Washington at an event on the Arab Spring. Wright said U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is “grossly inconsistent,” and seems to have a different approach for each country, from Libya to Yemen to Bahrain. Other panelists at the event indicated the administration can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach to countries facing such an array of challenges.
The White House announced Mitchell’s departure late May 13. He worked as a “tireless advocate” for peace, whose contributions “contributed immeasurably” to the goal of peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict,” President Obama said in a statement.
“As a nation, we remain committed to peace in the Middle East and to building on George’s hard work and progress toward achieving this goal,” President Obama said.
David Hale, the deputy Middle East envoy, will serve as acting envoy, President Obama said.
USIP’s Scott Lasensky says the headline about Mitchell’s departure isn’t about Mitchell himself as much as it is the public policy questions it raises.
“Will the U.S. put forward a new approach that fills the space created by the collapse of peace talks in the fall, a new policy that ties together the pursuit of peace with the sweeping changes now reshaping the Arab world?”
President Obama’s upcoming speech is expected to be a “fresh outreach to the Muslim world” in the wake of the operation against bin Laden, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the president’s speech May 11. White House officials say the president would use the speech to put the death of bin Laden into a broader political context amidst the uprisings across the Arab world. “While Al Qaeda’s influence has been ebbing in the Middle East for years, these officials said, Bin Laden’s death punctuates the terrorist group’s growing irrelevance,” The New York Times reported May 13.
Wright believes Obama must seize the day. Says Wright: “this is a time that the United States should be investing new energy, leverage and resources into both the problems and potential in the Middle East,” Wright says. “Mitchell will be missed.”