Eight foreign ministers urge US and Israel to avoid fresh strikes on Iran

Ministers demand Hormuz reopening and an end to Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia

At the Friday summit in Istanbul, foreign ministers from eight European and Middle Eastern countries urged the US and Israel not to renew their attacks on Iran. They warned that fresh fighting would spread the conflict and push oil prices higher while talks over Tehran’s nuclear program remained deadlocked. The Guardian described the development of a new multinational “anti-war bloc” as a challenge to the increasingly open plans by the US and Israel to relaunch strikes on Iran.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, joint convener of the summit in Istanbul, said: “Military intervention in Iran is not any kind of solution. We agreed that a new military attack would spread the war and the conflict in the region.” He added, “All the countries around the table do not want the war to spread even more, once again.”

The ministers also demanded an end to the Houthi assaults on Saudi Arabia, and an immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz, currently blockaded by Iranian ships and drones. Those demands placed freedom of navigation alongside the call for a halt to new strikes on Iran.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said another war between Iran and the US would be bad for both sides and only worsen rising oil prices, which have hit their highest level since May. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband urged both sides to embrace diplomacy.

The Guardian said the Istanbul meeting, an unprecedented gathering of regional and European leaders initiated by Turkey and Germany, represented a rare chance for European ministers to have input into the crises afflicting the Middle East, including Yemen, Palestine and Iran. Europe had largely been left as a bystander, apart from sending air force protection to Saudi Arabia as it tries to fend off Houthi drone and missile assaults on its airports and energy installations.

The meeting brought together Fidan with Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty, Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar and Saudi Arabia’s Faisal bin Farhan on the regional side. Barrot, Miliband, Germany’s Johann Wadephul and Italy’s Antonio Tajani represented the European side. Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia formed the Mecca defensive security pact in August, and Egypt may join the grouping.

The agenda covered the Palestinian issue, including settlement expansion, settler violence and the two-state solution. It also addressed security in the Strait of Hormuz, Yemen, and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and prevent spillover into the Black Sea.

German representative Johann Wadephul said: “We are united by the impact these deadlocked conflicts are having on the economy and security of our countries and by the will to seek new ways to bring about solutions.” He made no criticism of the US but accused “the Houthis and Iran of blackmailing world trade and continuing to stranglehold global supplies of energy and fertiliser”.

“We are feeling the effects of the attacks on shipping routes and whether at the petrol pump or the supermarket,” Wadephul said. “Elsewhere there is threat of famine.”

Italian representative Antonio Tajani said the aim of the meeting was to work for “de-escalation to guarantee freedom of navigation.” He added: “I do not believe the problem can be solved from a purely military standpoint. If we want to reopen Hormuz, which is vital for our economies, we must promote dialogue and make Iran understand that this attitude cannot continue.”