US envoy George Mitchell assured the Palestinians on Wednesday of Washington's commitment to a state of their own, calling its establishment the only viable solution to their conflict with Israel. Mitchell, speaking after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on both sides to meet their obligations under a 2003 peace “road map” that commits Israel to halting settlement expansion and Palestinians to reining in militants. US President Barack Obama had made it clear “the only viable resolution to this conflict is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states,” the US envoy said. His comments highlighted a rare rift in US-Israeli relations. Netanyahu has not publicly endorsed Palestinian statehood and has said construction will continue in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank. Reiterating remarks he made in talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, Mitchell said in the West Bank city of Ramallah that Washington was seeking “prompt resumption and early conclusion” of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. “We are now engaged in serious discussions with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional partners to support this effort,” he added, before continuing the latest leg of his mission on a tour taking him to Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. Abbas made no comment to reporters. The Palestinian leader has said talks with Israel will be useless unless Netanyahu accepts a two-state solution and freezes settlements. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said in a statement the United States had “made clear its intention to reinvigorate Middle East peace talks, as well as its expectation that both parties implement their obligations under the road map.” Obama's emphasis on meeting obligations was “an important litmus test of fairness and balance”, Erekat said. An aide to Abbas said the US position was “encouraging” but Israel's position was “obscure and disappointing.” Netanyahu, who leads a conservative government that could face collapse if he halts settlement construction, is scheduled to set out his position in a speech on Sunday. Meanwhile in Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross Tuesday urged Israel to lift a two-year ban on visits to Palestinian prisoners from their families in the Gaza Strip. “Families of Palestinians detained in Israel, who have been prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip for the past two years, must be allowed to resume visits to their relatives,” the ICRC's chief representative in Israel, Pierre Wettach, said in a statement. “This is a humanitarian issue of utmost importance”, he added. The Geneva-based worldwide humanitarian agency said some 900 Palestinians held by Israel had been deprived of seeing their relatives since Israeli authorities ended ICRC-supervised visits in June 2007.
