European Finance Ministers Urge U.S. to End Middle East War

Top European finance ministers privately pleaded with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to end his country’s war in the Middle East to prevent the conflict from dragging the continent deeper into economic calamity.

During the G7 gathering of finance ministers in Paris Monday and Tuesday, Bessent was told the conflict with Iran is fueling a surge in oil prices in the European Union, hitting economic growth and threatening a full-blown food crisis.

Germany, France, Italy and the European Commission joined forces to deliver the message during a closed-door discussion on the economic consequences of war in the Middle East, according to three officials briefed on the talks who were granted anonymity to speak freely.

“It’s not only the Europeans who think that. We all think that it must end as soon as possible,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure, who chaired the meeting, told reporters during a press conference after discussions concluded Tuesday.

“We all know that the sooner we reopen the Hormuz Strait, the sooner the economic aspect of this geopolitical conflict will be resolved, the better off we will all be,” he added.

But the U.S. laid blame for Europe’s economic predicament on national governments.

“It’s [a] tired old tactic to try and blame their government’s abysmal approval ratings on external forces, rather than looking inward. They made themselves irrelevant,” a U.S. official told POLITICO, responding specifically to criticism from Germany.

Finance ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States took part in the two-day discussions focused on trade imbalances, combating financial crime and regulating new artificial intelligence models such as Mythos.

Ministers also discussed the financial fallout of the Middle East conflict, which has triggered a surge in energy and fuel prices and an economic slowdown across Europe. The European Commission is expected to downgrade EU growth estimates on Thursday — a stark contrast to the U.S., which is less vulnerable to higher energy prices.

“This war — which we are not responsible for, but which has also reached Germany and is being felt at gas stations and in economic developments — dominated the discussions this morning,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil told reporters on Monday afternoon.

“I made our position clear once again: We want the war to end quickly, we want a negotiated solution, and we want the Strait of Hormuz to remain open,” he added.

Bessent instead used the two-day summit to repeatedly call on his counterparts to step up their game in the economic fight against the Iranian regime, including by imposing additional sanctions.

“Of course, the United States is hardly alone in facing the scourge of terrorism, especially from Iran. Yet, too often, we seem to be alone in our resolve to thwart it,” Bessent said on Tuesday afternoon, speaking at a G7 event on fighting illicit terror financing.

End the war

The conflict in the Middle East was at the top of the minds of EU finance ministers, who are already saddled by high debts and are set to spend additional funds to cushion households and firms from higher energy bills.

To secure more leeway, Italy has been heaping pressure on the European Commission to exempt energy-related support from the bloc’s spending limits.

At the end of the G7, Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti expressed hopes for a peace agreement in the Middle East even though talks between the U.S. and Iran are still at a standstill.

“We all expressed the desire that an early, stable and lasting peace there [in the Middle East] and in Ukraine is good for everyone,” he said.

At the start of the G7 meeting, a French economy ministry official acknowledged that the U.S. and Europe had different views on the economic impact of the war in the Middle East.

In a major blow to Ukraine and the EU, Bessent announced on Monday the extension of a pause of U.S. sanctions on Russian oil exports until mid-June, which will generate billions of extra revenue for the Kremlin.

Although the U.S. imports almost no oil from Russia, the move eases pressure on major buyers such as China and India at a time of scarce supply due to the Iran war. Washington’s end goal is to increase global supply of oil and curb prices for households and businesses.

Speaking to reporters, the EU's economy commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, criticized the U.S. decision, saying that “now is not the time to relax sanctions on Russia.”