George Mitchell, U.S. President Barack Obama’s special representative to the Middle East, resigned last Friday in an unexpected move.

Due to his experience in the Northern Ireland peace talks and other foreign policy issues, in 2009 Obama selected the former senator, with the hope that he could resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
From the very beginning of his presidential campaign, Barack Obama called the Palestinian-Israeli issue one of his priorities. Unlike George W. Bush, who was totally disengaged from the conflict, Obama decided to choose a qualified and experienced diplomat like George Mitchell to address the challenge.
Mitchell made several trips to Palestine and Israel and negotiated with both parties, leading to some preliminary agreements between Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But despite the U.S. insistence, Israel refused to stop building settlements in the West Bank, even for a temporary period, and finally the peace negotiations reached an impasse. It could be regarded as a great defeat for U.S. diplomacy, and Mitchell came to the conclusion that he could not do anything for the peace talks.
However, the failure of the peace talks was not the only reason for George Mitchell’s resignation. The latest developments in the Middle East and North Africa, and especially the transition in power in Egypt and Tunisia, compelled Obama to make some major changes. Egypt has always played a major role in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. The former regime in Egypt, headed by Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, was always pro-Israeli, but the new government is making some drastic changes in its policies. The opening of the Rafah border crossing is a clear example of this new trend.
In response to the changes, the U.S. president decided to appoint a new defense secretary, a new CIA director, and new military commanders for Afghanistan and Iraq. He has also appointed some new ambassadors to U.S. embassies in various countries.
This shows that Obama is trying to synchronize his diplomatic and military teams with the latest developments, which have begun to redraw the political landscape of the Middle East and North Africa, especially in regard to the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
One of the most important changes in this context was the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas, which was recently signed by both parties in Cairo. This historic achievement can definitely be a trump card for the Palestinians in future negotiations with Israel and other important players in the region.
All this represents the beginning of a new series of strategies for the Middle East and North Africa that is going to be announced by Barack Obama in an address to the public next week.
Masoud Idrisi is a former Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.