U.S. envoy assures Israel of strong alliance

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. envoy George Mitchell said on Tuesday Washington was seeking swift renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and promised Israel its alliance with the United States would remain strong despite differences.

"We all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations," Mitchell said at a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

In the most public rift between the United States and Israel in a decade, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are at odds over Jewish settlement expansion and the Israeli leader's reluctance to endorse Palestinian statehood.

With Israelis fearing that Obama hoped to repair his country's image among Arabs by fostering a dispute with Netanyahu, Mitchell spoke in conciliatory terms to reporters.

"Let me be clear. These are not disagreements among adversaries. The United States and Israel are and will remain close allies and friends," Mitchell said.

Mitchell, Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state "side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel".

In an address to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, Obama called on Israel to stop settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and accept the right of Palestinians to a state.

Peres, whose post is largely ceremonial, echoed Obama, saying it was time "to take the bull by the horns" and pursue "a state for us and state for the Palestinians".