Daily Times

PARIS: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Saudi Arabia to take a more cautious approach to regional conflicts Friday amid growing concern over Riyadh’s involvement in Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon. “I think with respect to Saudi Arabia’s engagement with Qatar, how they’re handling the Yemen war that they’re engaged in and the Lebanon situation I think we would encourage them to be bit more measured, a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I think, fully consider the consequences,” Tillerson said.

The criticism comes only days after Saudi Arabia’s King Salman warned President Donald Trump that moving the US embassy for Israel to Jerusalem was a ‘dangerous step’ that could rile Muslims worldwide.

“Moving the US embassy is a dangerous step that provokes the feelings of Muslims around the world,” state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV quoted King Salman as telling Trump in a phone call.

The Saudi kingdom is, however, a close ally of the United States and hosted President Donald Trump’s first foreign visit, and Washington supports Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s domestic economic reform and anti-corruption efforts.

Published in Daily Times, December 9^th 2017.