South Africa offers to mediate in Middle East conflict if asked

JOHANNESBURG, March 4 (Reuters) - South Africa is willing to play a mediating role in the Middle East conflict if asked, President Cyril Ramaphosa told local media on the sidelines of an energy conference in Cape Town.

"South Africa is always ready to play a contributing role, either in mediation or whatever. And if a gap opens or if we are asked, we always live up to our obligations," Ramaphosa said, according to comments broadcast on local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

"If the opportunity were to open, we would talk and say: there must be a ceasefire. Dialogue is always the best way of ending conflict and then ending the war. And we want this war to come to an end immediately," he said.

Ramaphosa added that the South African government was doing everything it could to bring home its citizens stranded in the region.

(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Anathi Madubela;Editing by Alexander Winning)