US special envoy George Mitchell flew in to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss Middle East peace efforts with King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, US officials said. Mitchell met with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal ahead of his meeting with the King, a US embassy spokesman said. The special envoy arrived in Riyadh after stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt, where he emphasized US support for a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Prince Saud and other senior Saudi diplomats have called on Washington to pressure Israel into negotiations for a final peace deal. Spearheading US President Barack Obama's efforts to revive peace talks, Mitchell said in Cairo on Saturday that Washington would exert “great energy” in pursuit of a two-state settlement. “It has been the policy of the United States for many years that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state solution,” he told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Earlier in the week, Mitchell met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. But his message was met with skepticism by some in Netanyahu's hawkish cabinet. “In the present circumstances, one has to work not for two states for two people, but for two economies for two people,” Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Thursday. The 2002 Arab peace initiative advocates a two-state solution, offering Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for creating a Palestinian state based on an Israeli pullout from occupied land. Mitchell has said that a comprehensive Middle East peace is not only in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians and other countries in the region, but is also important to the United States and people around the world.
