King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, received George Mitchell, US envoy to the Middle East, here Sunday for a discussion on the Palestinian cause, the peace process in the region and the importance of stepping up international efforts to reach a just and comprehensive solution enabling the Palestinians to establish an independent and viable state. The audience was attended by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, and other officials. Mitchell had arrived in Riyadh late Saturday evening on the last leg of a Middle East tour aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, officials said. Mitchell was sent by Obama to the Middle East on a “listening tour” to hear out both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. On a trip that began just eight days after Obama was sworn in as US president on Jan. 20, Mitchell also visited Egypt, Jordan and Israel and held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. Before arriving in Riyadh on Saturday, Mitchell, famed for helping broker peace in Northern Ireland in 1998, met Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman. The Jordanian King urged Washington to resume its efforts to clinch a two-state settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. The trip of the 75-year-old former senator comes as Egypt and other regional powers seek to firm up the Jan. 18 ceasefire which ended the devastating 22-day Gaza war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. On Friday he said in Israel that the United States is committed to “actively and aggressively” seeking lasting peace in the Middle East but warned there would be further setbacks. King Abdullah also received at his palace on Sunday Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. They discussed the League's efforts aimed at solving Arab issues, particularly the Palestinian cause.
