Post-Cabinet Press Conference: Monday, 2 March 2026

Kia ora, good afternoon, everyone. Over the weekend, the United States and Israel carried out targeted strikes in Iran. We acknowledge these actions were designed to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security. New Zealand has consistently condemned the Iranian regime. Successive New Zealand Governments have held the position that Iran must dismantle its nuclear programme, stop its support of proxy terrorist groups, and end the repression of its people. But for decades now, Iran has defied the will and expectations of the international community.

The legitimacy of a Government rests on the support of its people. The Iranian regime has long since lost that support in the most brutal way possible. New Zealand stands with the brave people of Iran and in recent weeks they have taken to the streets to demand regime change, only to be met by violence and murder. The Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future and to live from fear of their own Government.

The violence overseen by the Iranian regime has extended beyond its borders. It is responsible for much of the instability and terror experienced throughout the Middle East over the decades. Iran has been presented with multiple opportunities through diplomacy to dismantle its nuclear programme and end its support for the terrorist proxy groups. It has chosen not to heed those calls.

We condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s indiscriminate retaliatory attacks in the Gulf and more broadly. We cannot risk further regional escalation and civilian life must be protected.

Our thoughts go out to all of those affected by the conflict and to the New Zealand families who are understandably worried about their loved ones living in or travelling through the region. New Zealand embassies in the region are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to provide consular support to New Zealanders.

As of this morning, 1,750 Kiwis in the Middle East have registered on Safe Travel. Over 1,000 of those are in the UAE, 71 are in Israel, and 26 are in Iran. In reality, the number of New Zealanders in the region is likely to be much higher. We therefore urge people to register on Safe Travel as soon as possible so that we can communicate with them directly. Our advice to them is to follow the advice of local authorities, including shelter in place recommendations, and to leave when it is safe and possible to do so.

With 19,000 flights disrupted globally and airspace in the Gulf likely to continue to be closed, I am conscious that travelling New Zealanders will already be feeling the impact. My advice for those flying through the Middle East is to contact your travel provider or airline quickly to discuss options. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has added eight more countries to the ‘do not travel’ list and people can find the list on a Safe Travel website, but it includes obviously most of the Middle East.

Here at home, New Zealand Police have also increased visibility and are in contact with affected communities.

New Zealand joins the international community in hoping that this crisis ends as quickly as possible. We call for a resumption of negotiations and adherence to international law, and we urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution that returns Iran to the community of nations. And with that, I’m happy to take your questions.

Sorry?

Well, again, we’re not best placed to make that assessment. We weren’t party to— we weren’t, you know, proxy or party to these attacks. They were independently launched by the US and Israel. They will have information and intelligence that we haven’t received. We weren’t advanced in—you know, briefed in advance. We haven’t had a subsequent [Inaudible] assert whether these are legal actions or not, and you’ve seen that with the UN and the Security Council where they haven’t [Inaudible]. But for them, it’s ultimately [Inaudible].

But from New Zealand’s point of view, we’ve had a longstanding condemnation of the Iranian regime. This is a regime—I just want to be really clear—that is killing its own people. This is a regime that has been funding terrorism all around the world, causing [Inaudible] havoc, that’s been pursuing a nuclear weapons programme despite endless rounds of diplomacy, breaking international law. So, you know, we—ultimately, issues of legality are for Israel and the US to talk to because we’re not party to that information or that intelligence they may have.

Well, again, I’ve answered that question, which is to say we are not party to the information or the intelligence that the US or Israel may have. We haven’t been involved in these. We weren’t given advance notice. We haven’t had subsequent briefings on any of that. That is up for them to assert that these are actions that are consistent with international law.

Well, again, you know, that is up to whether we even get shared the information and the intelligence. You know, that is, you know, the independent actions of two countries that have launched these attacks. They will have information and intelligence that we have not been party to or have seen. And that is why I just simply say, as you’ve heard other leaders around the world say, it’s up to those countries to actually assert the legal basis for this.

Well, I want to be clear, the Ukrainian Government and regime has not been brutally killing and murdering its own people. The Ukrainian regime has not been illegally pursuing an international—you know, breaking international law, pursuing a nuclear weapon. The Ukrainian regime/administration has not been funding international global terrorism around the world. So I wouldn’t make that association between those two cases.

Well, what I’d say is New Zealand has long supported actions to prevent Israel from getting access to a nuclear weapon. New Zealand has long supported actions to make sure that Israel doesn’t—Iran doesn’t repress and kill its own people. We’ve long supported actions that actually are making sure it doesn’t fund international terrorists. Those have been longstanding positions of the New Zealand Government under different colours and different political parties and persuasions for many, many decades now, right from 1979. So that has been a longstanding position.

This is an evil regime that is killing its own people by—even just in the last few months, you know, the estimates have been tens of thousands of people have been killed because they’re protesting out on the streets, wanting freedom and wanting Government to represent them and their people better.

Again, that has been a process, as you know, around terrorism designation that we have separately from this event, but suffice to say that I think we’ll have a decision on that very shortly.

Well, I just—we have our own independent foreign policy, as we’ve spoken about before. We’ll express our views in our own language, and that’s what we have done with our statement that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and myself both presented yesterday. But I’d just say to you, when you look at what the Australian Foreign Minister has said in subsequent conversations, you know, even with the Prime Minister of Australia, they’re saying pretty much the same things. They’re saying that we understand the reasons for this and why this has happened. They have got—you know, they also do not want to see Iran ever with a nuclear weapon. And they also acknowledge, though, that, you know, they can’t talk to it because they are also not proxy to the inside information that Israel or the US has as well. So I don’t see— you can argue the semantics of it but I don’t think our positions are that different.

Because we’re an independent country with our own independent foreign policy and we express it as we see fit. But I’m just saying to you, go back and look at the statements, say, of a Foreign Minister like Penny Wong, and I don’t think you’ll find too much difference in our point of view.

Look, I can’t talk to where our personnel are operationally. You will know that they’ve also been partaking and participating for many years, actually, around UN security missions as well across the Middle East, but all I can tell you is that NZDF staff and MFAT staff are all personally safe.

Look, you know I just can’t comment on that. Cabinet rules preclude me from doing so.

Well, again, I’m just not going to talk about legal advice because that’s not permitted under the Cabinet rules.

Well, again, I’ve tried to answer that pretty clearly, which is this is independent action from the US and Israel. We have not been party to intelligence or information. We were not given a heads—you know, we were not given advance notice or—and we have not been given subsequently a detailed briefing around that.

Well, I just would say to you, again, I can’t go beyond what I’ve said, which is that the Americans and the Israelis have made their own internal—and based off information that they have, their own internal intelligence. We have not been party or—party to any of those conversations or provision of information or intelligence.

I’m going to let the Chief of Defence talk to that and I’ll let him answer that, but all I can reassure you is what he’s reassured me on in our many conversations over the weekend is that our people are safe, which is important.

Well, again, all I can talk to you is to say very simply, you know, we have a longstanding commitment and set of condemnations about actions that actually we—you know, any actions taken by this former regime to actually pursue nuclear weapons is something we have no interest in. We are not supportive of that whatsoever. We are not supportive of a regime that’s killing its people. We’re not supportive of a regime funding terrorism. So that’s been a longstanding New Zealand commitment over many decades, over many different Governments.

To this attack, you know, this is independent actions of two nation states that have their own intelligence and their own information. I can’t second-guess that. I can’t—I’m not party to that. I don’t receive that information to know on the basis on which they have seen to actually launch these attacks, whether that’s a legal basis or any other intelligence they may have.

At the end of the day, every country, as I’ve been saying to you now for two years, acts in its own national interests. New Zealand has our own independent foreign policy. We act in our own national interests, both in a defence and a security and a trade sense and a people-to-people sense. That’s what we do as well. And so it’s up for—each individual country, you know, will act in its own national interest, and that’s exactly what’s happened here with the US and Israel.

No. No.

Well, again, I’m just saying—I’m just saying to you the US and Israel have their own deep intelligence, deep information networks, I would imagine, in this region. We are not central to this region. We’re a long, long way away from it. They have made an assessment based off the information and intelligence that they must have about the legal basis for this attack, but also about the rationale for doing this attack.

All I can say is then, zooming out, is that as New Zealand we’ve had a longstanding, you know, commitment under successive Governments that any actions that stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is a good thing. Any actions that are taken to stop them from sponsoring terrorism is a good thing. Any actions that stop them from killing their own people is a good thing. This is not a good regime, and that has been a longstanding position of New Zealand Governments under different administrations. And so that’s as far as I can say. I haven’t got anything else to add to that.

Again, you know, again, I’ve only seen what you’ve seen in terms of media reports, essentially, you know, to say that the Americans obviously feel that there is a series of leadership that potentially can, you know, emerge from here. But again, I’m not in a position to comment on that.

Well, again, I’m just not in a position to comment on that. All I know is that the current regime, since 1979, has brutally repressed its people. We all remember the story of that 22-year-old young woman who was actually—you know, lost her life under the custody of the morality police because she wasn’t wearing her hijab correctly. Well, that is a brutal, brutal administration when a Government is killing its own people in the way that it has. We’ve seen tens of thousands of people lose their lives just in the last month or so because of the protests out on the street. And so I don’t want you to be under any pretences, you know, this is a—you know, New Zealand has had a longstanding commitment and commitment to actions that means that Iran doesn’t get its hand on nuclear weapons, doesn’t drive terrorism, and doesn’t kill its people.

Long supported actions.

Well, I mean we obviously understand—we’re not saying that. What we’re saying is that we understand there’s—I don’t know how to be any clearer, guys. I mean, we’ve had a long—

Well, we’ve long supported actions—under our Governments, under successive political parties—that actually stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons. There have been endless rounds of diplomacy where Iran has flagrantly disregarded international law with respect to nuclear weapons programmes. That has not worked. That has not borne fruit, the diplomacy efforts.

The second thing I’d say is that when you see them sponsoring proxies like the Houthi and like Hezbollah and other terrorism groups all around the world, where there’s been a huge loss of life, you know, that is unacceptable, and when you see a regime that’s been so brutally repressive of its own people, and particularly women and lots of other—it’s unacceptable. So you know, that has been a position of ours. It’s a values-driven position that that’s a regime that’s not a good regime.

There have been ongoing negotiations about Iran’s nuclear weapons programme for decades and they have not borne fruit, and I want to be really clear about that because there have been endless negotiations and Iran has failed to uphold those agreements and also has continued to break international law around them.

Well, again, it’s a hypothetical question you’re essentially asking. What I can—

Well, what I can say is we can support goals that mean that Iran doesn’t get its hands on nuclear weapons. We can support goals that mean they are not going to continue terrorism around the world. We can support goals that mean that a regime is going to stop killing its own people in the way that it has. So, you know, that’s what we identify with.

Well, again, I’m not party, as I’ve said to you before. This is independent action from the US and Israel with their own information and their own intelligence as to the justification for why they’ve acted in the way they have. But what I can tell you is that this is a Government—alongside previous New Zealand Governments—that’s long supported actions that mean that Iran never ever gets its hands on a nuclear weapon. That would be incredibly bad for the world if that was to ever, ever happen. It’s incredibly bad as it is that they are creating massive instability around the world but particularly in the Middle East region because of their support of terrorist proxies. It’s incredibly bad what’s going on for the Iranian people, who are incredibly courageous but are actually getting killed by their own Government.

Well, again, I can’t talk to the legality of the attacks, as I’ve just tried to explain. The US and Israel are party to information and intelligence that I haven’t seen, haven’t been party to. And you’ve actually—it’s not—it’s not just me saying that. There’s many leaders around the world who actually are qualifying their statements because they’re in the same position. We are not party to the information that they have seen. All we have heard is the defence, the self-defence claim under Article 51 in the UN Security Council as a justification for the attacks that have taken place. We are not best placed to say—we are not best placed to sit here when we’re not central to the region and not central to this conflict, sitting here in New Zealand passing judgment on that. That is up to the Americans and the Israelis to assert the legal basis for their attacks.

Well, that is up to the Americans and the Israelis to make the assertion.

And they have gone to the UN and invoked Article 51 to say that they have justification for self-defence.

Yeah, hypothetical. Each situation we need to deal with.

Well, we—you see us doing—and we have, you know, lifted our efforts tremendously, you know, to make sure we are supporting, with 10 or 12 other countries, UN sanctions against North Korea with respect to, you know, what they’re doing with Russia in their war in Ukraine, for example. And we’ve stepped up our obligations there and playing our part there.

No, I’m just giving you the fact that New Zealand has long supported actions that are preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That is something—

That is something that is in the world’s interest, right, all of our interests, that that never, ever happens.

Well, again, that is up for the US and the Israelis—I know they’ve got—with respect to the school bombing, that is up to them to present what has happened there—

—because I’m not in a position to judge that from sitting in New Zealand and just jumping to an assumption or a conclusion there. That is up for them.

Look, we’re going to have to wait and see. You would have seen—I think the futures markets opened just a couple of hours ago—it was quite a muted response. I think you’ve seen markets over the subsequent weeks, with the build-up of the American military presence in the region, actually pricing it into their markets, so it looks like a fairly muted response. OPEC has been producing more oil over the last few weeks and recent months as well. So, you know, it looks like quite a muted response as we sit here today with the markets about to open, when you look at the futures exchanges, which are a good indication of where it will go. But obviously, you know, we need to wait and see.

Well, we want to make sure that any action is protecting civilians. We want to make sure that any action is consistent with international law. But we also, you know, need Israel and the US to explain their actions and their understanding of that event, and that is for them to explain.

Sorry?

Well, it’s up to them to explain their actions, right? And that’s what they have said. They’ve both come out—I’ve seen the same media reports that you have seen as well, which is to say that they are looking into that event in particular, and it’s up to them to explain after they undertake their review of what has happened there.

Well, again, that is not something I can talk to because I’m not party, as I’ve been saying, to the information or intelligence.

No, but I’m not—no, that’s dangerous. We don’t—we go off facts here and it’s important that we don’t just jump to conclusions that are easy. We actually need to make sure, one way or another way. And so for me, all I’m trying to be honest with you is saying, look, I’m not party to that information or that intelligence and therefore I’m not best placed to make that assessment. That is up for the Americans and the Israelis to do so and, you know, to assert why they have acted with legality in these attacks and also the information they may have that I’ll—that we’re not party to seeing. That is not inconsistent with what you’ve seen other world leaders say and the way they’ve had to qualify their remarks as well because they’re in exactly the same position.

Sorry, sorry guys, can we just go—let’s have everyone get a go. Can we just go quietly?

Look, I haven’t had an opportunity to catch up with other world leaders on the topic. It’s been a pretty fast-moving situation since Saturday evening, as you’re well aware of. But with respect to New Zealanders, at this point in time obviously all airspace is closed and will be so for the foreseeable future, I imagine. That’s why we’re saying to New Zealanders, look, please follow the local advice, take shelter, make sure you register with Safe Travel in the intervening period, and then when commercial flights resume, if you wish to leave, that’s the right time to do so. Do so if you feel you want to.

Yeah, look, it’s just too soon for us to say on any of that. I mean, at the moment the situation is the airspace is closed, as you well know. As I said, when commercial flights reconvene and recommence, there’s a lot of them that go through the hub of the Middle East, whether it’s in Doha, whether it’s in Dubai or frankly other places, and that’s the time to use the commercial flights. It’s just too early for us to ascertain what’s needed.

As I said to you, we reckon we’ve got about 1,750 registered on Safe Travel that are in the region, 1,000 in Dubai. And even if you think that maybe it’s five times bigger than that, you’re talking about, you know, 5,000 people potentially, and many of them, frankly, have been long-term expatriates that live and work in the region and may have lived there for a decade or so. But, you know, at the moment it’s just way too early for us to make a—

Well, again, that’s going to be ultimately a decision for the Iranian people to make. The 93 million of them will get to make a decision as to who represents them as a Government and as a leadership. But, you know, all I can say to you is the regime that, you know, we have grown up with, that has been in place since our generation has come through, has been an incredibly repressive one that has been pursuing nuclear weapons, sponsoring terrorism, destabilising the world and the region, and actually brutally repressing its own people.

Hang on, sorry, there’s a question. Someone hasn’t had a question yet so let’s go there.

Our officials will continue to talk, and that’s per normal. That happens regularly on an ongoing basis, and I presume there will be more conversation about the actions here and what the goals are and how much longer it may go on. But that’s ultimately for our officials to have those conversations.

Well, again, those are to be determined. But I’d just say to you that ultimately, an American—the country of America and the US has acted in its own self-interest, in its own national interest, based off its own intelligence and information which we are not party to. And so, you know, that is—that’s why I say it’s been an independent action and that’s why I say, and you’re hearing other world leaders say, you know, that is not something we have been party to or have information around. But what we do know is that we’ve had—we’ve supported longstanding actions that actually are about making sure that Iran never, ever gets a nuclear weapon. That would be a terrible thing for the world.

I think there’s nothing that’s changed. We have our own independent foreign policy, no doubt about it. As I’ve said to you in my state of the nation speech, the international rules-based system is breaking down. It’s been a disruptive period of time. The rules-based system of the last 70 years—we’re seeing countries that are exercising power over rules. We’re seeing a move from economics to security. We’re seeing a shift from, you know, low-cost global supply chains to national resilience. Those are the macro themes.

We have an independent foreign policy and we act in our own brutal national interests. Sorry, I’m going to go to the last question. Sorry, the gentleman behind.

Sorry, hang on. Maiki, just shouting doesn’t get the question. Can you just take turns? Be respectful.

No.

No, the—

Well, the Government is supportive of any actions that mean that Iran never gets its hands on a nuclear weapon. The Government is supportive of any action that means that Iran can’t pursue funding terrorist organisations, and our Government is supportive of any actions that mean they don’t keep killing their people. That has been a longstanding commitment of the New Zealand Governments under successive parties and colours and persuasions. That has not changed. But with respect to the specifics as to the US actions, independent actions of the US and Israel, as I’ve said before, they’re a party to information and intelligence that we haven’t seen.

Sorry, I’m going to go.

Sorry, Maiki, you’ve got—thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Take care.