Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has labelled the New Zealand Government’s response to the situation in Iran a “disgrace”.
Yesterday, Israel and the US launched “all-out” strikes on Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior regime figures.
Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes against its Middle Eastern rivals and US regional military bases.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters issued a joint statement condemning “in the strongest terms” Iran’s “indiscriminate” retaliatory attacks.
Clark took to social media to criticise the Government’s statement.
“It knows full well that international law has been breached even though negotiations on Iran’s nuclear capability were underway,” she posted on Instagram.
— Winston Peters (@NewZealandMFA) February 28, 2026
“It knows that US walked away from the last nuclear agreement with Iran. Why the servility? I guess we know.”
Clark retweeted a post from The Elders, an independent advocacy group linking senior public figures, which condemned military strikes by the US and Israel on Iran.
“The Iranian Government’s systematic denial of human rights and its brutal suppression of protests are indefensible and must be condemned without reservation,” The Elders chair Juan Manuel Santos wrote.
“Yet history shows that wars aimed at regime change deliver neither democracy nor stability.”
— The Elders (@TheElders) February 28, 2026
Clark said that the absence of an imminent threat to either the United States or Israel meant the attacks on Iran are illegal.
“The Iranian regime is a vicious theocracy which has caused huge trauma to its people. But that isn’t a reason for a breach of Iran’s sovereignty.”
Talks mediated by Oman between the US and Iran had been underway, Clark posted.
“Diplomacy should have been allowed to run its course. De-escalation now is urgent.”
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.