The U.S. must hold Israel to previous peace commitments and pressure it to accept the principle of Palestinian statehood, Palestinians told President Barack Obama's visiting Mideast envoy Friday, AP reported. The envoy, George Mitchell, met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his West Bank headquarters, after holding talks earlier in the day with politicians from Abbas' Fatah movement. The principle of Palestinian statehood is emerging as a key point of friction between the U.S. and Israel's new hardline government. During his current trip to the region, Mitchell twice referred to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a U.S. national interest. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu balks at the idea.
