Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaking with World Economic Forum President Børge Brende (not in picture) in Davos.
Doha, Qatar: Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said that the stopping of Gaza war is must to diffuse its escalation in the region.
“I believe that if we want to address the issue, we need to address the real issue, the central issue, which is Gaza in order to get everything else diffused.”
“We are concerned about the further escalation in the Red Sea,” Prime Minister said in conversation at World Economic Forum in Davos, yesterday.
“When we look at the situation in the region, when it comes to the Palestinian issue, it is a very central issue in the entire region and that’s something being anticipated since the war started and we’ve been warning about the expansion and the spillover on the region, which would not be limited only to Gaza, but it will get beyond,” he said.
“We have seen this escalation happening first in southern Lebanon and then Syria, Iraq and now in the Red Sea, which is we see like it’s the most dangerous escalation right now because it’s not affecting only the region, it’s affecting the global trade.”
He said whenever something happening in the Middle East, it is affecting everyone. “Of course, LNG is like any other you know, merchant shipments will be affected by that.”
Otherwise, he said, if we are just focusing on the symptoms and not treating the real issue it will be temporary.
“Right now we see we are highly concerned about further escalation. Of course now we see that there are some retaliation from the US and UK and which is trying to refrain them from disrupting the international trade, but yet this is also will create a higher risk of further escalation and further expansion of that.”
“We always prefer diplomacy over any military solutions, and we believe that we shouldn’t just focus on those small conflicts. We should focus on the main conflict in Gaza and as soon as it’s diffused, I believe everything else will be diffused.”
He said that the military resolution will not bring an end for this, will not contain it. “It’s the contrary. I think it will create further escalation, because just imagine the attacks are continuing, whatever the retaliation is, the attacks are just continuing.”
On Gaza war and its destruction, he said that right now and looking at the situation and the amount of bombing, more than 23,000 people have been killed, two-third of them being women and children. “Gaza is not there anymore. I mean there is nothing over there. It’s carpet bombing everywhere and it needs like rebuilding an entire city again after.”
“What happened after 7th of October is showing all of us that this issue is a very central issue. Not for the region, but for the entire world. The war in Gaza, and even the response of the international community on the war, has been unfortunately, very disappointing for the region and for the people of the region. We see that for the first time, I mean in the recent history, we see even calling for ceasefire became a controversial term in such a situation.”
He said that Iran and the GCC countries are neighbours. “I think that we have a common understanding among the GCC countries that it’s very important to be focused on how to engage with Iran, how to create a better ground of common interest and common understanding between us and build on that and really deal with our differences by dialogue by addressing the issues face to face.”
