US President Barack Obama has named former senator George Mitchell as his special envoy to the Middle East.
The president also on Thursday named former US ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke to be special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Senator Mitchell, 75, is a former Northern Ireland peacemaker.
He steered negotiations that led to a lasting peace in Northern Ireland and once wrote a report into the causes of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000 for President Bill Clinton's administration.
Mr Holbrooke, 67, was the chief architect of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement which ended the war in Bosnia.
