Prince Turki al-Faisal said over the weekend in an interview with the Emirati news site The National that Riyadh is seeking to promote "a regime of stability and development instead of the upheavals and negative developments that occurred in the past." Al-Faisal is regarded as one of the senior figures in the Saudi royal family and previously served as Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the US and as head of Saudi intelligence.
Al-Faisal said there were "players with differing perspectives" in the region and that Saudi Arabia was witnessing competing ambitions. "We see Israel, for example, publicly declaring that it wants to develop what they call 'Greater Israel' from river to river, from the Nile to the Euphrates," he said. "Iran, of course, has its own ambitions. There are also outside powers, the US, China, Russia, Europe and others. Our region has always been seen as a prize for those who aspire to control it."
On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, al-Faisal also questioned Washington's ability to act in Gaza without institutional backing from the United Nations. "Establishing a council requires institutional support and the only alternative is the UN," he said. "NATO will not do it, nor will the Arab League. America alone will not be able to do so."
He further complained that "Israel continues to violate the ceasefire and every day Palestinians are being killed." According to al-Faisal, "They blame what they call extremists, Hamas fighters who come out and shoot at them. But that is no excuse. Hamas has been almost destroyed." Hamas is a Gaza-based terrorist organization that has ruled the coastal enclave since 2007.
Amid heightened tensions with Iran and the possibility of a US strike, the Saudi prince stressed that his country supports diplomacy. At the same time, he assessed that the leadership of the regime in Tehran was under heavy pressure following its brutal crackdown on protests.
"Iran has suffered strong and devastating blows over the past two years," he said. "We saw the uprising. By their own admission, it claimed many lives. So there is a sense of uncertainty facing the leadership in Iran, which perhaps it has not dealt with before." However, al-Faisal added that he did not know whether the recent events would ultimately lead to regime change.
