NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Hostilities in Israel must subside before negotiators can resume any meaningful peace talks, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell said Tuesday during a talk at Yale University.

Mitchell, who helped negotiate the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, said now is a critical time to halt the violence in Israel.

“I found it difficult to convene meaningful and substantive negotiations during periods of extensive violence,” Mitchell said, recalling his work in Northern Ireland.

“The first objective must be to seek a way to stop the violence, to let emotions subside and give political leaders an opportunity to meet in a context in which they can have discussions,” he said.

Despite setbacks in the Northern Ireland peace process, Mitchell said he believes the 1998 peace agreement will hold because of “widespread disgust with the war” in Northern Ireland.

Mitchell, a Democrat from Maine, is mentioned as a possible recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize for peace, but he said he doubted he would be awarded the honor. In 1998, the prize went to Protestant David Trimble and Catholic David Hume in an effort to encourage the peace talks.

“I think it’s unlikely in the extreme it would be anyone involved in Northern Ireland so soon after that, but it’s flattering to be mentioned,” Mitchell said.

During his appearance at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Mitchell also spoke briefly about a possible peacemaking role in Connecticut.

U.S. Rep. Sam Gejdenson, a Democrat, has asked Mitchell to mediate disputes between the Mashantucket Pequot tribe and the leaders of surrounding towns. The disputes include whether the tribe should be allowed to add land to its reservation, which would take the land off the tax rolls and out of town jurisdiction.

Mitchell said Tuesday he agreed, as a friend to Gejdenson, to participate if the towns and the tribe could decide how and what would be discussed.

“Sam Gejdenson is a good friend and a great congressman. I told him I’d do what I could to be helpful,” Mitchell said.

The Mashantuckets have said they are willing to talk.