Saudi Arabia hopes for de-escalation in Middle East, economy minister says

Saudi Arabia is hoping for de-escalation and dialogue, Economy Minister Faisal al-Ibrahim said on Wednesday, when asked at a conference in Berlin about the situation in the Middle East following Iran's missile attack against Israel.

Al-Ibrahim called the escalation unfortunate but said it was very hard to avoid discussing.

"We hope that wisdom will prevail, de-escalation will happen, dialogue will come into place and more collaboration will be seen globally, but also regionally for us to address these challenges," he said.

Fears that Iran and the U.S. would be drawn into a regional war have risen with Israel's intensifying assault on Lebanon in the past two weeks, including the start of a ground operation there on Monday, and its year-old conflict in the Gaza Strip.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack on Israel was in retaliation for Israeli killings of militant leaders and attacks in Lebanon on the Iran-backed armed movement Hezbollah and on the Palestinian militant group Hamas.