By Samia Nakhoul and Marwa Rashad
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday he did not see Donald Trump’s new administration increasing the risk of an Israel-Iran conflict, addressing an issue the region has feared since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud also said in Davos that he hoped President Trump’s approach to Iran would be met with a willingness by Tehran to positively engage with the U.S. administration and address the issue of its nuclear programme.
“Obviously a war between Iran and Israel, any war in our region is something we should try to avoid as much as possible,” Prince Faisal said during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss mountain resort.
“I don’t see the incoming U.S. administration as contributory to the risk of war, on the contrary, President Trump has been quite clear he does not favor conflict.”
Fears of war between Israel and Iran increased after the Tehran-backed Palestinian Hamas group led a deadly cross-border raid on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering an Israeli military offensive that dragged Iran’s allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, into confrontation with Israel.
Israel unleashed a devastating war against Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, decimating the military structure of both groups, shattering Iran’s network of influence in the Middle East and upending powerful alliances that led to the ousting of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, another Iran ally.
Fifteen months after the October attacks, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was reached.
Prince Faisal was speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland on a panel along with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who helped broker the ceasefire agreement.
The Qatari premier said the decisive involvement of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, had made a profound difference and led to significant progress in reaching the deal.
He said he hoped the Palestinian Authority would return to play a governing role in Gaza once the war with Israel comes to an end, adding that Gazans — and not any other country — should decide how the enclave is to be governed.
How Gaza will be governed after the war was not directly addressed in the deal between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has rejected any governing role for Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
HELPING SYRIA
Saudi’s Prince Faisal also said the new Syrian government had inherited a broken country with no real institutions and needed international help to rebuild and start from scratch.
“It is essential to engage, show patience, and extend effective support to the administration in Damascus by putting out a helping hand,” he said.
Lifting the burden of sanctions placed on Syria due to the actions of the previous Assad government would be a key step forward. Although the U.S. and Europe have granted some waivers, further action is necessary, the minister said.
“Syria is a shattered nation in desperate need of rebuilding. The earlier we engage and the more support we offer, the greater the chances of a successful and stable transition,” he said.
Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed said Trump’s return to the White House presented significant opportunities for collaboration, emphasizing the potential to work together to transform the Middle East into a region of stability and security.
“President Trump’s whole notion of making America great again is something very important. We also want to see the Middle East great again.” he said.
Prince Faisal, whose country shunned Lebanon for years over the strong influence of Hezbollah on state affairs, also said he would visit Beirut later this week, marking the first such trip by a Saudi foreign minister in more than a decade.
He said the election of a Lebanese president after a lengthy power vacuum was positive, but that Riyadh needed to see real reforms in order to raise its engagement in the country.
(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Marwa Rashad in Davos, Maha El Dahan and Nayera Abdallah in Dubai; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry, Alexander Smith and Gareth Jones)
