Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said in an interview aired Sunday that war with Iran would devastate the global economy and he prefers a non-military solution to tensions with his regional rival.
“If the world does not take strong and firm action to deter Iran, we will see further escalations that will threaten world interests,” Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the CBS program “60 Minutes.”
“Oil supplies will be disrupted and oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” the prince said.
The prince said a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran would be catastrophic for the world economy.
“The region represents about 30 per cent of the world’s energy supplies, about 20 per cent of global trade passages, about four per cent of the world GDP. Imagine all of these three things stop,” he said.
“This means a total collapse of the global economy, and not just Saudi Arabia or the Middle East countries.”
He said a September 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities, which his country and the US blamed on Iran, had been senseless.
