French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said a new escalation between Iran and the US 'would create nothing but losers'. (EPA Images pic)ISTANBUL: Foreign ministers from eight European and Middle Eastern countries met in Istanbul on Friday in an unprecedented format, urging diplomacy and peaceful solutions to prevail across the Middle East as well as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Ministers from Britain, France, Germany and Italy met counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt to discuss Hormuz -- a crucial trade route blocked in the Iran war -- Yemen and ways to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The talks happened at an Istanbul hotel overlooking the Bosphorus, after separate meetings of top European diplomats and others from regional countries.
