Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has warned that recent US-led strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen would only deepen regional divides over Israel's war on Gaza.
Al Thani said Tuesday that tensions in the Middle East are "affecting everyone," stressing that the primary focus for leaders should be to diffuse the war in Gaza, where Israel's deadly military offensive since October 7 has decimated swathes of the territory and left more than 2.2 million people facing famine, deadly disease and forcible displacement.
"We always prefer diplomacy over any military resolutions, 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 it's diffused, I believe that everything else will be diffused," the Qatari prime minister said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
When asked about US and UK striking Houthi targets in Yemen over attacks on the Red Sea, he called its impact on the freedom of navigation "a global issue."
"What we have in the region is a recipe of escalation everywhere," he added.
Regional divides: Since November, the Houthis — an Iran-backed Shia political and military organization — have been launching drones and missiles at commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.
Then on Thursday, the US and UK launched strikes against Houthi targets in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, marking the fiercest response from the Biden administration since the salvos began.