Istanbul Summit Warns US and Israel Against Fresh Strikes on Iran

Foreign ministers from eight European and Middle Eastern countries have called on the United States and Israel to hold back from renewing attacks on Iran, cautioning that a new round of fighting would spread the conflict and drive oil prices up further.

The gathering in Istanbul, which brought together regional and European diplomats, has effectively created a new multinational "anti-war bloc". It poses a challenge to the increasingly open plans by Washington and Israel to resume strikes on Iran while negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme remain deadlocked.

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, who co-convened the summit, said military intervention in Iran was not a solution of any kind. "We agreed that a new military attack would spread the war and the conflict in the region," he said. "All the countries around the table do not want the war to spread even more, once again."

The ministers also demanded an end to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the immediate reopening of the strait of Hormuz, which is currently blockaded by Iranian ships and drones.

French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said another war between Iran and the US would be damaging for both sides and would only worsen the rise in oil prices, which have reached their highest level since May. UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband also urged both sides to embrace diplomacy.

The meeting was unprecedented, initiated by Turkey and Germany, and offered European ministers a rare opportunity to have a say on crises across the Middle East, including in Yemen, Palestine and Iran. European states have largely been bystanders, apart from sending air force protection to Saudi Arabia as it tries to fend off Houthi drone and missile attacks on its airports and energy installations.

The Middle Eastern countries were represented by Fidan, Egypt's Badr Abdelatty, Pakistan's Ishaq Dar and Saudi Arabia's Faisal bin Farhan. Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia formed the Mecca defensive security pact in August, a grouping Egypt may join. Europe was represented by Barrot, Miliband, Germany's Johann Wadephul and Italy's Antonio Tajani.

The agenda covered the Palestinian issue, including settlement expansion, settler violence and the two-state solution, alongside security in the strait of Hormuz, Yemen, and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop it spilling into the Black Sea.

Wadephul said the participants were united by the impact the deadlocked conflicts were having on their economies and security, and by a will to seek new ways to reach solutions. He did not criticise the US, but accused the Houthis and Iran of blackmailing world trade and strangling 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," he said, adding that elsewhere there was a threat of famine.

Tajani said the aim was to work for de-escalation to guarantee freedom of navigation. "I do not believe the problem can be solved from a purely military standpoint," he said. Reopening Hormuz, he added, required dialogue and making Iran understand that its current stance cannot continue.