Saudi ambassador warns wider escalation could take the region back to the "stone age"

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat to the US, has repeated her call for a ceasefire in Gaza and warned that wider escalation could take the region back to "the stone age."Show more

Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud said there is "trauma and pain on both sides, can't take that back, but what we can do is ceasefire now. How many more children need to die? How many more limbs need to be lost? How many more parents need to lose their livelihoods? It can't happen anymore."

Speaking to CNN's Becky Anderson at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she added that Saudi Arabia "fully recognises need for Israel to feel safe, can not be at expense of Palestinian people."

Talking about the wider region, Princess Reema said "the longer this goes on, it is inevitable either a rogue entity or a mistake will happen that will take us back, and I hate to say it, to the stone age. It is a hot and volatile area my part of the world."

She called for unity in the region, saying "the only path to prosperity for the Middle East is unity, its economic prosperity, it is a balanced, stable region."

On the issue of normalization of relations with Israel, Princess Reema said it was something Saudi Arabia was putting on the table but "the critical point is, not without the Palestinian people."