Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar's foreign minister, said a two-state solution was essential to ending the conflict and warned that the Israeli response to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack showed the region could not go back to the way it was before.
"Gaza is not there anymore. I mean, there is nothing over there," he said, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "It's carpet bombing everywhere," reported The Associated Press.
Al Thani warned of the massive destruction inflicted by Israel's offensive on Gaza and criticized the Israeli defense minister's rejection of a cease-fire in the battered enclave. The war has brought about a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza's 2.3 million population and pushed more than a quarter into starvation, according to the United Nations. Palestinian authorities have confirmed the death toll to have surpassed 24,000 in the coastal territory.
The AP published Al Thani's forewarning at the World Economic Forum, quoting that a military confrontation in the Mideast waterways "will not contain" the attacks by Yemen Houthi rebels who on Monday fired a missile, striking a U.S.-owned ship just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden.
"What we have right now in the region is a recipe of escalation everywhere," Sheikh Mohammed added.
The conflict has spread to parts of the Middle East since the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas began on Oct. 7, with groups allied to Iran carrying out attacks in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, revealed Reuters.
"We need to address the central issue, which is Gaza in order to get everything else defused...if we are just focusing on the symptoms and not treating the real issues, (solutions) will be temporary," said Al Thani.
What Is The Background?
Since November, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group has been attacking vessels in the Red Sea as the route accounts for about 12% of the world's shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians during Israel's onslaught of the region. U.S. and British forces have responded by carrying out dozens of air and sea strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen since Friday, Reuters reported.
Sheikh Mohammed said U.S. and British attacks create "a high risk of further escalation and further expansion of" the conflict.
"We always prefer diplomacy over any military resolutions," he said.
Without a viable, sustainable two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, securing financial support from the international community may hinder the reconstruction of Gaza, Sheikh Mohammed said.
"The bigger picture cannot be ignored," he continued, urging the international community to require Israel to agree to a time-bound, irreversible pathway to a two-state solution.
"We cannot leave this just at the hand of the Israelis," concluded Sheikh Mohammed.
