The Obama administration’s approach to the Middle East includes peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as well as Israel and both Syria and Lebanon, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said on Wednesday at the beginning of a meeting with opposition leader Tzipi Livni (Kadima). Mitchell is heading to Beirut and Damascus on Thursday after wrapping up two days of meetings in Israel and the PA.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said Mitchell's trip to Lebanon and Syria is consistent with his approach of talking to everyone before beginning to move the process forward. It is expected that Mitchell will try to assess Syrian-headquartered Hamas’s attitudes.  Any meeting between Mitchell and Hamas representatives, however, is “out of the question”, according to diplomatic officials.