Christopher Luxon says he misspoke when saying NZ backed ‘any actions’ to stop Iran
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has walked back his comments on Monday that suggested New Zealand supported “any actions” taken against Iran.
Luxon says he should have said “action” not “any action”.
The prime minister was pressed on whether his Government approved or not of the US and Israeli strikes on Iran over the weekend, and whether they had breached international law.
The Government’s original statement was mute on this point, “acknowledging” the strikes but not endorsing them.
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At his post-Cabinet press conference on Monday Luxon said repeatedly that “any action” that stopped Iran getting a nuclear weapon or hurting its civilians was good.
“We've had a long standing commitment under successive Governments that any actions that stops Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is a good thing, any actions … to stop them from sponsoring terrorism is a good thing, any actions that stops them from killing their own people is a good thing,” Luxon said.
On Tuesday morning Luxon said he misspoke.
“I misspoke on that. I mean, we've long supported action to make sure that Iran doesn't have its hands on nuclear weapons as I said yesterday. We've long supported action to make sure that it doesn't, can't continue to sponsor terrorism. And obviously we’ve long supported action with respect to the repression of its people, but obviously not any actions,” Luxon said.
He noted that it was clear that New Zealand would not support carpet bombing for example, a question that been put to him on Monday.
Luxon repeated his point from Monday that it was impossible to judge the legality of the strikes given he was not party to the same information that the US and Israel were.
“We have not been party to the information that has led to those strikes. We have not been briefed subsequently about those strikes at all. And the Americans and the Israelis obviously have information that will inform the basis of those strikes,” Luxon said.
“I've seen a number of commentators talk about the legality of those actions. I don't know how anybody would understand without having access to the information the information the Israelis or the US has, that they will be able to make that assumption.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that the “imminent threat” was that Iran would strike the US once Israel attacked it.
“We knew that if Iran was attacked — and we believe that they would be attacked — that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded,” Rubio said.
“We went proactively, in a defensive way, to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he was glad Luxon had cleared up his comments.
“I think ‘words matter’ to quote our Foreign Affairs Minister, and in this particular instance, words matter a great deal.
“Adherence to international law shouldn't be a matter of discretion. It should be something that we expect all countries to adhere to,” Hipkins said.