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.”
Prince Faisal also said he would visit Lebanon later this week, marking the first such trip by a Saudi foreign minister in more than a decade.
The kingdom shunned Lebanon for years over the strong influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah on state affairs.
Prince Faisal said the election of a Lebanese president after a lengthy vacuum in the country was positive, but that Saudi Arabia needed to see real reforms in order to raise its engagement in the country.
The Lebanese parliament elected army chief Joseph Aoun as head of state earlier this month, filling the vacant presidency with a general who has U.S. support and showing Hezbollah’s weakened sway after the group’s devastating war with Israel.
(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Marwa Rashad in Davos, Maha El Dahan in Dubai; Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry and Alexander Smith)