(IsraelNN.com) US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said on Saturday that the Obama administration would exert "great energy" in the pursuit of a two-state solution for the conflict over the Land of Israel.

"It has been the policy of the United States for many years that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a two-state solution," the former U.S. senator told reporters in Cairo after meeting Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak.

This is "the policy of President Obama and one that we will pursue with great energy," he said, according to the Associated Press. An end to the conflict, he added, was "also in the national interest of the United States."

"We recognize the complexity and difficulties...,” the diplomat said. “We are aware of a lot of history of expectations being raised and then not being met," he added, explaining that "we will proceed as rationally as possible with a full commitment to our objective [of] a comprehensive peace in the Middle East."

Mitchell met Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas this past week.