There is a lot of anxiety in the Persian Gulf region and beyond about the prospects of the U.S. and Israel restarting major combat actions against Iran. UAE presidential advisor Anwar Gargash said yesterday that the U.S.-Iran war has made it a “watershed year” for the region and the world. “We don’t really want to see another round of confrontation in the region,” Gargash told the audience at the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, reported AP. A possible escalation is casting a long shadow over the three-day security forum in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, AP added.

Gargash said that the current crisis requires “a lot of wisdom, with political tools being our main tools, and the understanding that military solutions will only complicate the current very complicated scene that we have and will not actually bring any quick off-ramps.”