Politico reported, quoting informed sources, that finance ministers from G7 countries asked US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to persuade his country's administration to end hostilities in the Middle East.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump indicated that the United States might launch a new attack against Iran as early as Friday or one of the following days.
The newspaper said: "During private conversations, prominent European finance ministers asked their American colleague Scott Bessent that the United States end the war in the Middle East to avoid exposing the continent to more economic problems resulting from the conflict."
It was noted that representatives of Germany, France, Italy, and the European Commission, during a closed discussion on the economic consequences of the military conflict in the Middle East at the G7 finance ministers meeting in Paris, told Bessent that
the conflict with Iran contributes to a sharp rise in oil, gas, and commodity prices in the European Union, which negatively affects economic growth and threatens a comprehensive food crisis.
An unnamed US official told the newspaper that it is a common practice to try to "blame external factors for the sharp drop in government approval ratings, instead of looking for the cause in internal problems."
