White House says Obama administration's special envoy has stepped down, following two "tough" years in the position.
George Mitchell,the Obama administration's special Middle East peace envoy, has resigned after more than two years of trying to press Israel and the Palestinians into negotiations, US officials said.
The White House announced on Friday that the former senator and broker of the Northern Ireland peace deal had stepped down for personal reasons.Accepting Mitchell's resignation, Barack Obama, the US president, said in a statement that the veteran mediator "has contributed immeasurably to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security".
"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," he said.
David Hale, the deputy Middle East envoy, has been asked to serve as the acting envoy by Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state.
"I have every confidence in David's ability to continue to make progress in this important effort," Obama said.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, said Mitchell's resignation could be "a sign or symbol that the Obama administration is going to refocus its efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian process".
"Mitchell did make a push for peace, but weeks later it fizzled because of Israel's refusal to stop the settlement building. Since then it really has dropped out of the headlines in the US," she said.
Unfruitful efforts
Mitchell, 77, had spent much of the last two years shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to restart long-stalled peace talks.
Direct peace talks resumed briefly last year but broke down over Israeli settlement construction on occupied land.
Faced with deadlock, the US in December scrapped efforts to relaunch direct peace talks and Mitchell
has not visited the region since then.
In recent months, his activity had slowed markedly as the two sides drifted farther apart.
"From the Senate to Northern Ireland to the State Department, his work has brought peace and increasing prosperity to millions of people around the world and made our own country stronger and more secure," Clinton said in a statement on Friday.
Obama has recently made changes to his Middle East policy team and named Daniel Shapiro, a senior adviser who has helped shape the response to the Middle East upheaval, as his nominee to be the new US ambassador to Israel.
"We've been hearing from the White House that president Obama is going to give a big speech where he'll place a new focus on the Middle East peace process," said Culhane.
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Saturday, May 14, 2011
Deaths as Syrian army storms border town
At least four people killed after troops open fire near Lebanese border, as thousands attend funeral of shot protester.
At least four people have died after army troops stormed the town of Talkalakh in the restive Homs province in western Syria.
Witnesses said those killed on Saturday were among dozens of people attempting to leave Talkalakh and enter Lebanon, which borders the town, a day after a mass demonstration there against the rule of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
"The security forces, who had been encircling Talkalakh since the morning, fired machine guns. At least three people were killed and several were wounded," a witness told the AFP news agency.
A fourth died in hospital in Lebanon from gunshot wounds sustained while fleeing the Syrian town, medical sources said.
Another eyewitness on the border told Al Jazeera that at least 19 people were wounded as the military swooped into the town.
The violence came after more than 8,000 people attended a funeral in the provincial capital of Homs for one of three protesters killed on Friday by Syrian security forces.
Mourners for Fouad al-Rajoub gathered near Bab al-Dreib and began making their way through the city, chanting for an end to the siege on Homs, Baniyas and Deraa, the major flashpoints in the country's uprising.
An eyewitness in the city said that, due to the size of the procession, the military had removed and relocated some of the checkpoints it had established throughout the city since mass anti-regime protests erupted there last month."Everything is peaceful now but we will be passing government buildings and I fear the snipers will open fire on us," he said.
Syrian army personnel were deployed in Talkalakh after officials said troops and tanks were pulled out of Baniyas and Deraa.
Security barriers were set up at the entrances of the Talkalakh and heavy gunfire was heard, according to activists' accounts. Security forces were deployed in surrounding villages as well.
Lebanese security officials said cracks of gunfire could be heard on the Lebanese side of the border.
Officials said scores of Syrians, including at least four injured people, had crossed into Lebanon - fleeing the violence in their country that has left at least 775 people dead since the start of the protest movement in mid-March.
'National dialogue'
Meanwhile, Adnan Mahmoud, the minister of information, announced "a comprehensive national dialogue in all Syrian governorates," Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported on Saturday.
In a press conference on Friday, Mahmoud said that the government was implementing "a comprehensive political, economic and social reform program in the interest of the people".
"There is a correlation between security and stability from one hand, and the reform from the other hand," SANA quote the minister as saying.
Mahmoud said army units had started to leave the coastal city of Baniyas and completed a pullout from Deraa, although residents there reported tanks outside mosques in the morning.
Aref Dalila, an economist who met Shaaban last week, said "the domination of the security apparatus over life in Syria" must end for different opinions to be represented.
"We are long used to these 'dialogues' in Syria, where the regime assembles its loyalists in a conference and the other opinion is either in jail or underground," he said.
According to the Syrian government "police and security forces have been sent to pursue armed groups which perpetrated acts of killing citizens, terrorised people, burned public and private properties, halted social and economic life, threatened schools and public security".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
At least four people have died after army troops stormed the town of Talkalakh in the restive Homs province in western Syria.
Witnesses said those killed on Saturday were among dozens of people attempting to leave Talkalakh and enter Lebanon, which borders the town, a day after a mass demonstration there against the rule of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
"The security forces, who had been encircling Talkalakh since the morning, fired machine guns. At least three people were killed and several were wounded," a witness told the AFP news agency.
A fourth died in hospital in Lebanon from gunshot wounds sustained while fleeing the Syrian town, medical sources said.
Another eyewitness on the border told Al Jazeera that at least 19 people were wounded as the military swooped into the town.
The violence came after more than 8,000 people attended a funeral in the provincial capital of Homs for one of three protesters killed on Friday by Syrian security forces.
Mourners for Fouad al-Rajoub gathered near Bab al-Dreib and began making their way through the city, chanting for an end to the siege on Homs, Baniyas and Deraa, the major flashpoints in the country's uprising.
An eyewitness in the city said that, due to the size of the procession, the military had removed and relocated some of the checkpoints it had established throughout the city since mass anti-regime protests erupted there last month."Everything is peaceful now but we will be passing government buildings and I fear the snipers will open fire on us," he said.
Syrian army personnel were deployed in Talkalakh after officials said troops and tanks were pulled out of Baniyas and Deraa.
Security barriers were set up at the entrances of the Talkalakh and heavy gunfire was heard, according to activists' accounts. Security forces were deployed in surrounding villages as well.
Lebanese security officials said cracks of gunfire could be heard on the Lebanese side of the border.
Officials said scores of Syrians, including at least four injured people, had crossed into Lebanon - fleeing the violence in their country that has left at least 775 people dead since the start of the protest movement in mid-March.
'National dialogue'
Meanwhile, Adnan Mahmoud, the minister of information, announced "a comprehensive national dialogue in all Syrian governorates," Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported on Saturday.
In a press conference on Friday, Mahmoud said that the government was implementing "a comprehensive political, economic and social reform program in the interest of the people".
"There is a correlation between security and stability from one hand, and the reform from the other hand," SANA quote the minister as saying.
Mahmoud said army units had started to leave the coastal city of Baniyas and completed a pullout from Deraa, although residents there reported tanks outside mosques in the morning.
Aref Dalila, an economist who met Shaaban last week, said "the domination of the security apparatus over life in Syria" must end for different opinions to be represented.
"We are long used to these 'dialogues' in Syria, where the regime assembles its loyalists in a conference and the other opinion is either in jail or underground," he said.
According to the Syrian government "police and security forces have been sent to pursue armed groups which perpetrated acts of killing citizens, terrorised people, burned public and private properties, halted social and economic life, threatened schools and public security".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
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