Opposition leaders
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he does not support the United States and Israel's strikes on Iran.
He disagrees with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's stance that it wasn't New Zealand's place to comment on the legality of the strikes.
Hipkins said he believed the strikes were illegal.
"I think New Zealand Government seems to be moving away from what has been a long-standing and principled approach to these issues," he told Morning Report.
"We have been very clear that we think international law matters, and that all parties to these sorts of conflicts should follow international law. That's not the case here."
He said it is important that our government speaks with authority and in favour of international law.
"New Zealand's government should stand up for the international system of rules that we rely on for our own security as a country," Hipkins said.
"If the situation becomes that the countries with the most power can do whatever they like regardless of what international law says, that's very bad news for a small country like New Zealand."
Opposition leader Chris Hipkins says US-Israel strikes illegal
"Te Pāti Māori stands firmly opposed to war and military escalation in Iran and across the Middle East.
We reject the idea that bombing, invasion, or unilateral military strikes create peace. History shows us the opposite. Military aggression destabilises regions, costs civilian lives, and deepens generational trauma.
Two truths can exist at once. Authoritarian regimes can be oppressive. And foreign military intervention driven by geopolitical interests does not liberate ordinary people. It is everyday families who pay the price. Bombing innocent girls at their school is monstrous!
As Indigenous people, we know what it means when powerful nations justify force in the name of “security”, “order”, or “freedom”. Too often those words mask economic interests, strategic dominance, and political ego. The legacy is displacement, grief, and long-term instability."
Green Party
John Minto
3march2026
Surely one of the most craven, despicable statements ever to come from a New Zealand Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
It’s astonishing to see Luxon and Peters parroting Israeli/US propaganda while these countries flagrantly violate international law and the United Nations Charter.
Instead of condemning them, Luxon and Peters have condemned the victim, Iran, saying:
“We condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory attacks on Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan. We cannot risk further regional escalation, and civilian life must be protected”
Iran’s retaliatory attacks are on US bases in these countries and the mealy mouthed “civilian life must be protected” is a cynical sop to New Zealanders outraged at our complicity in these US/Israeli war crimes.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has rightly called this statement a “disgrace”.
All of my life the problem in the Middle East has been the racist, apartheid state of Israel which has indiscriminately murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians even before their latest genocide in Gaza. It is the mass killing, mass starvation, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the daily theft of Palestinian land which is the issue for Iran and for the vast majority of humanity.
All their political lives Luxon and Peters have been on the wrong side of history – the US side – while New Zealanders have shown that two to one they support sanctions against Israel and the end of our complicity in genocide.
Luxon and Peters have turned this country into a pathetic, toadying sidekick to the biggest playground bullies.
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Dr Bryce Edwards.
Helen Clark (ex NZ PM)
@juanmanuelsantos, Chair of @theelders_org, has spoken on behalf of all The Elders. We support adherence to international law. Talks mediated by #Oman between the US & Iran had been underway. Diplomacy should have been allowed to run its course. Deescalation now is urgent. The UN Secretary General has called for this and strongly condemned the breach of international law.
The statement on the 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇱 attacks on Iran by the New Zealand Government therefore is a disgrace. It knows full well that international law has been breached even though negotiations on Iran’s nuclear capability were under way. It knows that 🇺🇸 walked away from the last nuclear agreement with Iran. Why the servility? I guess we know.
Professor Robert Patman from Otago University said the United States had "diminished itself" for not observing international law
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The United Nations
Statement by the Secretary-General on Iran
Statements | António Guterres, Secretary-General
I condemn today’s military escalation in the Middle East. The use of force by the United States and Israel against Iran, and the subsequent retaliation by Iran across the region, undermine international peace and security.
Iranian New Zealander and lawyer Arman Askarany told RNZ it was a "complete joke" that New Zealand had acknowledged the US statement saying it was self-defence.
"It would be funny if it wasn't so horrific."
Askarany said it was a clear escalation by the US and Israel, and believed New Zealand was undermining the rules based order it purported to support.
He also accused the New Zealand government of showing "indifference" when it came to the Israeli strikes on Iran, which he said were killing civilians including children.
Askarany said the Israeli strikes were an "attack against Iran... an act of aggression and... violation of international law."
He called on New Zealand to "stop endorsing the narrative" of what he called a "war criminal", referencing the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants issued for Israel's President Benjamin Netanyahu.
Calls for government to denounce United States attack on Iran
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