WEBVTT 00:02.033 --> 00:05.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% AMNA NAWAZ: Foreign ministers from several Arab allies of the United States are in Washington 00:05.000 --> 00:09.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% this week for meetings with the Biden administration about the Israel-Hamas war. 00:09.333 --> 00:13.533 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Nick Schifrin sat down earlier today with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, 00:13.533 --> 00:18.533 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, to discuss that war and the kingdom's role in the region. 00:20.500 --> 00:23.333 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Prince Faisal, Mr. Foreign minister, thank you. Welcome to the "NewsHour." 00:23.333 --> 00:25.400 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% You are here in Washington. You are calling for 00:25.400 --> 00:29.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% a cease-fire. The U.S. is not. What is your message today here in D.C.? 00:29.633 --> 00:31.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD, Saudi Foreign Minister: Our message is that 00:31.700 --> 00:36.700 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% too many civilians have already died on October 7 and since. 00:38.700 --> 00:41.900 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% We have now seen a level of carnage in Gaza that is unprecedented, that is unjustifiable 00:43.966 --> 00:48.800 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% under any pretext of self-defense. So, we need to find a path out of this conflict, 00:51.666 --> 00:55.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% and, therefore, we think there should be a cease-fire that can allow us, 00:55.500 --> 00:58.900 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% first of all, to address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. 00:58.900 --> 01:03.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And we're not just seeing people dying from Israeli bombs or from the fighting on the 01:05.833 --> 01:09.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% ground. We're also seeing people dying now of diseases such as cholera because of the 01:11.433 --> 01:14.433 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% broken-down sanitary system. So we need to focus on protecting the lives of the civilians of Gaza. 01:14.433 --> 01:17.833 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% NICK SCHIFRIN: The U.S. is vetoing the Security Council resolution. 01:17.833 --> 01:19.966 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Does that mean they're not listening to you? 01:19.966 --> 01:23.333 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: Unfortunately, we are seeing a position that cease-fires are 01:23.333 --> 01:26.900 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% somehow a dirty word, and I can't - - honestly can't understand that. 01:26.900 --> 01:29.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Usually, what we see when there's a conflict in the international scene, 01:29.933 --> 01:34.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% we are all always looking for a way to end the fighting. So we're very disappointed that the 01:36.966 --> 01:39.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Security Council hasn't been able to take a firm position on that, and we certainly 01:39.500 --> 01:44.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% disagree with the U.S. that this resolution deserves -- doesn't deserve to go through. 01:46.466 --> 01:48.166 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: How will you respond to that? I mean, you're here chairing the 01:48.166 --> 01:50.933 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% Arab Islamic Ministerial Committee with a group of foreign ministers. 01:50.933 --> 01:53.900 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% What will you do concretely in response to, 01:53.900 --> 01:56.433 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% to be honest, what it sounds like, the U.S. not listening? 01:56.433 --> 02:00.133 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: I mean, we're going to continue to push this very important 02:00.133 --> 02:05.033 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% message that too many civilians have already died, there is no reason for more civilians to die, 02:07.366 --> 02:10.333 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% and, more importantly, this continuing military operation and this continuing level of civilian 02:12.866 --> 02:16.200 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% casualties does not serve anybody's interests, including the interests of Israel or its security. 02:17.966 --> 02:19.933 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: With all due respect some officials, 02:19.933 --> 02:24.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% tell me that your public calls do not match your private calls to destroy Hamas. 02:25.166 --> 02:26.633 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Why the dual message? 02:26.633 --> 02:28.600 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: There is no dual message. 02:28.600 --> 02:30.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% What we say in private and what we say in public is exactly the same, 02:30.666 --> 02:34.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% not just for the kingdom, but for all of the Arabs. I am very proud that what we are saying 02:34.700 --> 02:39.700 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% in public and private is the same. I can't say the same for some of our Western interlocutors. 02:41.600 --> 02:43.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Meaning what the United States says in public and private is different? 02:43.433 --> 02:45.033 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: I didn't name any. And I'm not 02:45.033 --> 02:46.800 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% going to -- it's not the United States or any particular country. 02:46.800 --> 02:49.866 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I'm just saying that some of our Western interlocutors are saying 02:49.866 --> 02:52.066 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% things in public that they are not saying in private. 02:52.066 --> 02:55.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, Antonio Guterres, the secretary-general of the U.N., 02:55.666 --> 02:57.666 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% told the Security Council -- quote -- "There is a 02:57.666 --> 03:02.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% high risk of the total collapse of the humanitarian support system in Gaza." 03:04.333 --> 03:06.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% In Northern Gaza, 90 percent of those remaining there have spent at least one 03:06.866 --> 03:11.866 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% full day and night without food; 22 of 36 of Gaza's hospitals are not working. 03:13.700 --> 03:18.433 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Is there will among Arab nations to step in with a humanitarian plan to help Gaza? 03:20.366 --> 03:22.366 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: The situation is extremely dire, just as you described. 03:22.366 --> 03:26.300 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% We have already stepped up. There's Arab countries and others. We have 03:26.300 --> 03:30.066 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% provided significant quantities of aid. This aid is being restricted 03:30.066 --> 03:34.000 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% from going into Gaza. This aid is being blocked and obstructed. 03:34.000 --> 03:39.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I was struck some -- a week or so ago when I was at the U.N. Security Council, 03:40.800 --> 03:43.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% the Israeli representative said -- and I quote -- "Humanitarian aid is important, 03:43.733 --> 03:47.233 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% but more food, water and medicine will not bring us a solution." 03:47.233 --> 03:49.800 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And I'm curious,what is a solution? 03:49.800 --> 03:54.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Gazans tell us that they feel abandoned by the Arab world. They're 03:54.233 --> 03:57.500 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% angry. The war continues. Do you think you have let them down? 03:57.500 --> 03:59.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: I think they are justifiably angry that they are 03:59.933 --> 04:04.900 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% suffering while the international community as a whole has let them down. You see that 04:06.833 --> 04:10.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% the established mechanisms for international security and peace have not acted. This is a 04:12.533 --> 04:16.400 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% failing of the entire international community. We all bear that burden. 04:16.400 --> 04:19.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Are you worried that the Israeli Defense Forces are waging their 04:19.800 --> 04:24.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% campaign in a way that the region could be engulfed with a kind of extremism that 04:26.766 --> 04:30.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% would prevent your vision of the future to be prevented from actually being achieved? 04:31.966 --> 04:34.466 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: This is absolutely a critical concern that we have. 04:34.466 --> 04:38.633 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% These images of dead babies in Gaza, of collapsed buildings, just like the images of October 7 have 04:41.000 --> 04:44.800 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% been shocking to the Israeli public, the images since shocking and infuriating not just to Arabs, 04:46.900 --> 04:51.400 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% not just to people in our part of the world, but all over the world. It means that people 04:51.400 --> 04:55.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% are losing their trust, first of all, in the two-state solution. 04:55.833 --> 05:00.833 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% They're losing their trust in the argument for peace in our region, but they're also losing their 05:03.833 --> 05:08.833 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% trust in the international systems of security and legitimacy. And that, I think, is a danger 05:11.366 --> 05:15.666 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% to us all. And, of course, there is the risk of extremism. There is the risk of, whether it's lone 05:18.066 --> 05:21.900 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% wolves or others being driven to violence by these images and these scenes of civilian suffering. 05:23.366 --> 05:25.666 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Is there a risk that, as the Gaza war goes on, 05:25.666 --> 05:30.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% as the world continues to see these scenes of sufferings, you could refuse to re-begin 05:33.333 --> 05:38.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% talks to normalize relations with Israel and everything associated with that deal? 05:38.100 --> 05:43.100 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: We are convinced that the only solution is peace. And this is the 05:45.100 --> 05:48.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% strategic choice we have made in Saudi Arabia and all of the Arabs have made, and from 1982, 05:48.066 --> 05:53.066 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% when Saudi Arabia proposed the face initiative to the 2002 Arab peace initiative and beyond. 05:54.633 --> 05:57.500 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% We are committed to making peace, including supporting peace with 05:57.500 --> 06:02.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% Israel. And we will engage and we are ready to engage with a two-state solution. 06:04.500 --> 06:06.833 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% NICK SCHIFRIN: But this is a little different. This is normalizing relations with Israel, 06:06.833 --> 06:11.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% getting a security guarantee from the United States, getting civilian enrichment, 06:11.233 --> 06:16.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% nuclear program, from the United States, giving the Palestinians I'm not sure exactly what. 06:17.700 --> 06:20.300 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Are you willing to restart those negotiations at some point? Or, 06:20.300 --> 06:24.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% at some point, do those negotiations become impossible, given the nature of the war? 06:24.733 --> 06:28.300 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: We are focused on ending the war now, 06:28.300 --> 06:32.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% but we are also very, very interested in moving the cause of peace forward. 06:32.000 --> 06:36.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And that has been what we were working on before. And that is something we continue. 06:36.133 --> 06:41.133 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% And I have to say, both in my engagements with the administration and with Congress, 06:41.133 --> 06:46.133 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% I hear a clear message that peace is the answer. And that will need a Palestinian 06:47.766 --> 06:51.900 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% element. That will need us to move irrevocably to a Palestinian state. 06:53.933 --> 06:56.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Does the kingdom, does the crown prince consider the possibility there could be a 06:56.666 --> 07:01.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% kind of Sadat moment of going to Israel to make the kind of peace that you're talking about? 07:03.700 --> 07:05.733 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: So, the priority now is, let's stop the killing. 07:05.733 --> 07:10.666 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And, after that, hopefully, we can focus again on peace and moving forward. And peace means 07:12.700 --> 07:16.500 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% dignity and prosperity for the Palestinians and a state in which they can have those and 07:18.700 --> 07:23.700 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% that will allow them to live in the region, along with Israel, in that peace and dignity. 07:25.633 --> 07:28.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Are there any Arab governments willing to come into Gaza, 07:28.933 --> 07:33.933 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% as the U.S. is requesting, as some kind of peacekeeping arrangement after the war? 07:35.533 --> 07:38.066 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: Look, we have made two things clear, 07:38.066 --> 07:41.133 align:left position:10% line:71% size:80% that we cannot talk about the day after in Gaza without talking about Palestine as a whole. 07:43.133 --> 07:45.633 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% That is a unified position of the Arab world. And we have also said that we 07:45.633 --> 07:50.033 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% cannot talk about the day after without an end to the fighting, because we don't know, 07:50.033 --> 07:54.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% what does the day after mean? What does the day after look like? What does Gaza look like? 07:54.100 --> 07:56.800 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Since October the 7th, the Houthis from Yemen have launched cruise 07:56.800 --> 08:01.266 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% missiles toward Israel, attacked and even hijacked a commercial vessel in the Red Sea, 08:01.266 --> 08:03.500 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and have sent drones toward U.S. ships. 08:03.500 --> 08:07.700 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% How concerned are you by these Houthi attacks? And what messages 08:07.700 --> 08:09.900 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% are you delivering to the Houthis directly? 08:09.900 --> 08:12.533 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: Look, we are clear that escalation 08:12.533 --> 08:17.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% is in nobody's interest. And that's the message we are sending very clearly. 08:17.100 --> 08:22.100 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% We hope that we can focus on ending the situation in Gaza and the conflict. The 08:24.000 --> 08:28.000 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% risks of this conflict continuing and this conflict escalating and spiraling 08:30.000 --> 08:31.966 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% are significant and real. We are committed to ending the war in Yemen and we are 08:31.966 --> 08:36.233 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% committed to a permanent cease-fire that opens the door for a political process. 08:36.233 --> 08:40.600 align:left position:10% line:77% size:80% And we are going to continue to work towards that end, and we are very -- fully engaged 08:40.600 --> 08:45.600 align:left position:20% line:71% size:70% in that. And I don't think that we are going to see a significant risk to that right now. 08:47.000 --> 08:48.500 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% NICK SCHIFRIN: Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you very much. 08:48.500 --> 08:48.633 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% PRINCE FAISAL BIN FARHAN AL SAUD: Thank you very much.