The Hill News

George Mitchell, who stepped down as the Obama administration’s special envoy to the Middle East last week, insisted Sunday that President Obama’s call to base Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on pre-1967 borders is not a threat to Israel.

“I don't believe it is threatening Israel,” Mitchell said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With Christiane Amanpour.”

“A major objective of this initiative, among others, is to prevent a disaster for Israel from occurring at the United Nations General Assembly in September, when the Palestinians have said they will see a unilateral declaration of statehood," Mitchell said. "The president spoke out strongly against that. We oppose it. And the way to prevent that from occurring is to provide an alternative in direct negotiation that would foreclose or make not necessary that option."

Mitchell said Obama’s statements Thursday in a wide-ranging speech on the Middle East do not represent a major shift i! n policy on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

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