France took part in a coordination meeting in Istanbul on Friday with the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt. Neither the United States nor Iran attended.
The talks came as Iran's armed forces said they were prepared to fire on United States warships. President Donald Trump told supporters at a rally in Florida that Washington was still deliberating new attacks or continued pressure through a naval blockade and sanctions. He said the US military may carry out another Epic Fury, referring to the bombing campaign against Iran at the start of the war.
Ali Abdollahi, chief of the general staff of the Iranian armed forces, said the US Navy could not re-enter Iran's territorial waters or their periphery because Iran could target vessels in the region. He said any wish for US forces to enter the Persian Gulf again would go unfulfilled, and that Iranian forces were determined to draw the United States and Israel into a quagmire in retaliation for the surprise attack on Iran on February 28, which began an eight-month war.
Vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz continue to be attacked by Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said seven tankers were attacked or hit mines overnight into Thursday, then claimed on Friday that two supertankers struck mines. Brent crude rose to about $117 a barrel, its highest price since April. Washington has reportedly ordered many diplomatic personnel to leave Saudi Arabia, with others set to leave other countries in the region.
Turkiye's foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said after the meeting that the participants agreed a new attack on Iran would widen the war and spread the conflict across the region. He said military intervention in Iran was by no means a solution and that no one was endorsing it at this point.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said his government held Iran and the Houthis responsible for instability in the Middle East. The foreign ministers of Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt said in a joint statement that Israeli occupation was the main source of instability in the region and beyond.
In line with ending the US-Israel war on Iran, the four regional countries supported the Islamabad memorandum of understanding signed in June and a negotiated settlement, while demanding unrestricted passage through the Strait of Hormuz. They opposed attacks on civilians and commercial vessels and condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and its Red Sea shipping interests.
The Iran-allied Houthis continued to exchange attacks with Saudi Arabia, hitting Riyadh again on Saturday, after the international airport in Dammam and the Shaybah oilfield were targeted in recent days. Saudi forces have bombed Marib, Taiz and other Yemeni provinces under Houthi control. In southern Lebanon, further Israeli air attacks were reported around Nabatieh on Friday, with artillery fire near Zawtar ash-Sharqiyah. Iran has linked that front to its war with the United States and Israel.
Nour News, an outlet affiliated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, argued that the Istanbul meeting showed a gap between diplomatic claims and events on the ground. It said the United States and European powers, rather than Iran, must make concessions first, and presented reopening the Strait of Hormuz as conditional on Washington accepting Tehran's demands and acknowledging responsibility for attacking Iran and Yemen.