Iran war: Winston Peters suggests Iran is negotiating with the US, even if it says it isn't
Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says Iran is negotiating with the United States, despite Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei saying no such negotiations have taken place.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that negotiations are under way with the Iranian Government, while Baqaei has rejected this notion.
Peters said he believed Iran would not become another Ukraine as there was a lot of pressure to get a deal.
Iranian representatives have repeatedly noted that the last time the country was in active negotiations with the United States it was bombed while talks were ongoing.
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Peters said he believed some negotiations were happening, suggesting the Iranian Government were habitual liars.
“Of course they're happening. How many decades of lies and deceit do you have to put up with for the last 47 years to realize that one party is not an honest party, that it's a little minority in a massively populated country and holding their people to ransom. So of course, I believe talks are taking place,” Peter said.
He said the “surviving remnants” of the regime were the ones undertaking negotiations.
Asked how a settlement was possible if the Iranian Government was itself fragmented, Peters said there was still hope.
“That's what the aspiration is, that whomever remains will come to their senses and come to an agreement,” Peters said.
Asked if he was optimistic about a negotiated solution - in early March Peters said the conflict would be over soon - Peters said he was not going to make a prediction.
“This is not a situation that one wants to rush to. Why? Well, for 3000 years, there has not been a circumstance that you could predict like yesterday, so I'm not going to start now.”
He said that it was not going to be another Ukraine however and there was pressure from other countries for a “faster than usual resolution - because there’s just too much pressure on other economies as well.”
He suggested that anything said about the conflict should be taken with a grain of salt by journalists.
Asked if that included the US president, Peters replied that was a “very good question” and walked away from journalists.
Nicola Willis steps up criticism of US action
Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who is leading the response to the fuel crisis, offered the most direct criticism of the US invasion so far.
“I remain disappointed that New Zealand is bearing the brunt of a conflict that is not of our making. It is going to damage the world the longer that Strait is closed, and it is leading to high petrol and diesel prices and damage to our families, our businesses, and our economy,” Willis said.
“This is not our conflict. We're not supporting this conflict. We haven't been asked to support this conflict, nor would we. This is a conflict which is regrettable for the global economy, regrettable for everyday New Zealanders, and is adding to their cost of living in ways that are painful and which are regrettable.”
Willis was asked if New Zealand’s should have criticised the US abduction of Venezuela’s leader Nicholás Maduro earlier this year, which preceded the invasion of Iran, and said that was a “good question” for the foreign affairs minister.
Peters said he didn’t think anyone was missing Maduro who was a “terrorist”.
“I just came back from Latin America - nobody raised it with me. They know a terrorist when they see one.”