'Gaza is not there anymore. End war to stop Houthi attacks': Qatar’s PM as world leaders gather in Davos

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani described the current regional situation as a "recipe for escalation everywhere" and said Qatar believes that defusing the conflict in Gaza will stop the escalation on other fronts.

Davos: Qatar’s prime minister offered stinging criticism of Israel and the international community on Tuesday over the ongoing Israeli war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister, said a two-state solution was required to end the conflict and warned that Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the Israeli response 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.”

He also brought up the ongoing tensions in the West Bank, which has seen Palestinians killed as well by Israeli security forces, and urged for an end to Palestinian divisions. “We cannot have a two-state solution without having a government and politicians in Israel who believe in coexisting together side by side peacefully and we cannot have all this ongoing without ending this war,” he said.

"End Gaza war to stop Houthi attacks"

Military strikes will not contain attacks by Yemen's Houthis on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea, but an end to the war in Gaza will, he said. "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," he said.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group has since November been attacking vessels in the Red Sea, part of a route that accounts for about 12% of the world's shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians in the war with Israel.

He warned that a military confrontation in the Mideast waterways “will not contain” the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels who on Monday fired a missile, striking a US-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.

(With inputs from agencies)

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