WASHINGTON: The Palestinian Authority and Israel welcomed yesterday the appointment of former senator George Mitchell as the new US envoy to the Middle East.

“He’s someone with experience of the Israel-Palestinian question and the settlement of political conflicts,” chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmad Qorei told AFP. “We have already worked with him as the author of the Mitchell Report, which called for a freeze of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from West Bank towns.”

Israel welcomed not only Mitchell but also US President Barack Obama’s move to “engage actively” in peace negotiations, foreign ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor said.

He recalled “the good working relationship” the Jewish state had enjoyed with Mitchell in 2001 and said he was convinced it would continue.

In Washington, Obama said Mitchell would be sent to the region “as soon as possible” to ensure a “durable” and “sustainable” ceasefire in Gaza.

The United States would “actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace,” Obama said.

Qorei said Mitchell’s appointment following telephone calls to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were “a sign of the importance that the new administration is giving to the Palestinian problem.”

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said he hoped that Mitchell’s visit would bring “the change needed for a new start in the peace process leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.”

But some are already expressing reservations in Mitchell representing a change in approach to the Middle East.

Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League told New York’s Jewish Week that he was “concerned” because Mitchell’s “meticulously even-handed” approach could represent a break from a policy based on US support for Israel. Mitchell was tasked with formulating proposals to restore the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during the upsurge of violence that followed the failed Camp David summit in 2000.

Gaith Al-Omari, a former Palestinian negotiator, says Mitchell’s appointment “does send a very good signal and it’s creating some excitement among Palestinians.”

The administration did not make any announcements about an envoy for Iran, another critical area for foreign policy.

Foreign-policy analysts uniformly praised both Mitchell and Holbrooke, but some said Clinto would need to assert herself.

“There’s no precedent for a secretary of state to subcontract these incredibly high-profile and politically resonant issues so early in her tenure,” said Aaron David Miller, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

“That could create a management problem.”

Clinton was also expected to announce Dennis Ross as envoy to Iran.

Ross has taken a hawkish view on engaging Hamas. Mideast observers are noting that conflicts within this group of players in the new Administration seem almost inevitable.