Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his regret on Saturday at the resignation of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
"The prime minister contacted Mr Mitchell to convey his regret at his decision to resign," his office said.
Netanyahu also held Palestinians responsible for the collapse of peace negotiations overseen by Mitchell.
He said that "multiplied pre-conditions imposed by Palestinians complicated the task," of the US envoy, in reference to the Palestinian demand to freeze Jewish settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.
He added that the reconciliation process between the the Palestinian Authority's Fatah in the West Bank and and the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, had posed an additional challenge.
The appointment of Mitchell at the very outset of US President Barack Obama's presidency was a sign of the importance the new administration attached to the peace process.
The latest diplomatic effort, launched in Washington in September 2010, stalled a few weeks later when Israel rejected prolonging a freeze on the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Palestinians, however, have been courting recognition for their state at the United Nations General Assembly, a move criticised as "unilateral" by the United States and Israel.
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