Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-moves-quickly-to-name-mideast-afghan-envoys Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript President Barack Obama has named two diplomatic heavyweights to be special envoys to the Middle East and the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. Analysts discuss what the moves say about Mr. Obama's emerging foreign policy. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: Next, the new Obama brand of special envoy diplomacy. Two were announced and introduced today at the State Department, Richard Holbrooke for Afghanistan and Pakistan, George Mitchell for the Middle East. Both spoke of their assignments. Mitchell mentioned his past experience as chair of the Northern Ireland peace talks.GEORGE MITCHELL, Middle East diplomatic envoy: The secretary mentioned Northern Ireland. There, recently longtime enemies came together to form a power-sharing government to bring to an end the ancient conflict known as the Troubles. This was almost 800 years after Britain began its domination of Ireland.Just recently, I spoke in Jerusalem, and I mentioned the 800 years. And afterward, an elderly gentleman came up to me, and he said, "Did you say 800 years?" I said, "Yes, 800." He repeated the number again. I repeated it again. He said, "Ah, such a recent argument. No wonder you settled it."I believe deeply that with committed, persevering and patient diplomacy, it can happen in the Middle East.RICHARD HOLBROOKE, Pakistan and Afghanistan diplomatic envoy: You've asked me to deal with Afghanistan and Pakistan, two very distinct countries with extraordinarily different histories, and yet intertwined by geography, ethnicity, and the current drama.This is a very difficult assignment, as we all know. Nobody can say the war in Afghanistan has gone well, and yet, as we speak here today, American men and women and their coalition partners are fighting a very difficult struggle against a ruthless and determined enemy without any scruples at all, an enemy that is willing to behead women who dare to teach in a school to young girls, an enemy that has done some of the most odious things on Earth.And across the border lurks the greater enemy still, the people who committed the atrocities of September 11, 2001.If our resources are mobilized and coordinated and pulled together, we can quadruple, quintuple, multiply by tenfold the effectiveness of our efforts there. JIM LEHRER: And to Margaret Warner.