Written By:
- Date published:
7:49 pm, March 23rd, 2026 - 24 comments
Categories: Donald Trump, International, Iran, israel, nuclear war, nz first, war, winston peters -
Tags: Iran war, strait of hormuz
Almost two weeks ago, New Zealand Foreign Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters repeated a claim by Trump that the Iran-Israel/US war would be over “much more quickly than people realise.”
Trump had echoed a similar sentiment a day earlier, and both comments defied analyst expectations and expert views.
Undeterred Winston Peters went on various media to attack Helen Clark for her warnings around the complexities and risks of the Iran War – Clark highlighted the war contravened long standing international law, and elevated risks.
Two days ago, Clark warned that an MFAT message on the Iran-US-Israel war from Winston Peters could be softening “up the public for a military operation in the Straits of Hormuz”
Today it looks like Clark could be right.
Appearing on NZME, Winston indicated that he was ready and seriously considering sending NZ “military assets” to help the USA in securing the Strait of Hormuz. He said it would not do it in a bellicose way.
Many countries, including Australia, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and South Korea, and other NATO allies have all declined.
It’s not the first time Peters has shown significant deference to US President Trump. Before he announced NZ’s decision to break from Canada and Australia and not recognise Palestine statehood, Peters first tried to gain a personal audience with Trump, likely to inform the US President first.
This is Aotearoa New Zealand under the Coalition right wing government.
Labour & Green Party rolled out cameras on fishing boats during their tenure. The results from 3 months of footage below. At a donor’s request, Shane Jones wanted to ban all cameras in 2024. After public outcry, he changed it to banning release of the footage & fining anyone who releases footage up to $50,000.
MT…
He…would not do it in a bellicose way? I wonder wtf he thinks is actually going on over there? I wonder if Peters is in stages of onset dementia? I seriously can think of no rational reason to support the illegal actions of the fascists Trump/Netenyahu.
And re…
There are many reputable news sites/journalists who are saying Trump..had just entered, an Iranian trap. IMO with little chance of success (whatever that was)…or even, any easy escape.
Of course Trump (and Captain Amerika Hegseth) had fired any rational Military Commanders who would have said no fkn way…
This Iranian shitfest kinda reminded me of History…a certain invader of Soviet Russia..who also entered a trap…I wanted to take the place and you know we’ve done it – we’ve got it really, except for a few enemy positions still holding out.
Well fuck wily Winston and his dementia BS. No way.
Further to this. NZ should follow this fuckwit/creep ?…(who IMO is indeed showing onset/increasing dementia..)
Wily Winnie? Use any of your remaining sense. Just NO !
The Rt Hon Winston Peters has forgotten to read his briefing papers again.
The USA is not seeking help to escort shipping and do minesweeping in the Strait of Hormuz, the POTUS regime wants other nations to do this.
We signed a statement of intent to so participate in such a mission in accord with a UNSC decision – but only after the war is over.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-from-the-leaders-of-the-united-kingdom-france-germany-italy-the-netherlands-and-japan-on-the-strait-of-hormuz-19-march-2026
This morning the internet is reporting Trump engaging in blatant market manipulation with war announcements overnight. Looks like NZ should not be risking any lives to facilitate insider trading going on. Any NZ involvement will look like the Gallipoli campaign with a known liar in charge, getting the troops killed.
Also take care of any Iranian diaspora community people in NZ, they are entitled to express their views on the conflict without be subjected to interpersonal harrassment.
Disaster capitalism Nic, it's a thing. Market manipulation (for perhaps a wider variety of reasons) makes it easier to understand why the prices are not yet as high as 2022, despite a far more dire situation for the world.
And point well made about our fellow New Zealanders.
Evidence as per the 1250% undersized snapper extent would indicate why they changed the regulations to end this being a reportable issue issue.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/03/19/fisheries-overhaul-gets-rid-of-minimum-size-limits-for-industry/
SPC good link.
Shane Jones in typical over the top bombastic BS mode…
In reality :
And, IMO his very prescient comment…
The comments section also good as usual on Newsroom articles.
Labour and the Greens should make it clear in their manifestos that the size limits for commercial fishing entities would be reinstated.
There are votes in this. There are many recreational fisherpersons out there. It is a straightforward issue that resonates.
Reinstating size limits doesn't stop undersized fish from being killed it just means they will be dumped again rather than kept.
If you force commercial fishers to keep all caught fish (including undersize fish and non targeted species) it forces them to become more selective and more innovative in targeting their catch. As an example there is far less sale value in undersized snapper. If the low sale value fish are include as part of their quota, then I would imagine that the fishers would be forced to change. It would just be a question of how long would changes take to be implemented…
You would still have to have cameras or observers on board to ensure there is no dumping at all.
Providing there is no dumping is the key point.
The hope is in future they use different nets and do not take in under sized fish.
As much as I oppose Trump's decision to attack Iran, you can't close pandora's box once it's open. Do we think if Trump just went home, everything would go back to normal? No. Iran would seek retribution.
The fact is, now that it's done, the only way "out" of this is to go hard, to forcibly remove the government, something even Trump isn't willing to do. The Iranian government killed thousands of their own people in a few days, they have no elections, the people are just lambs to the slaughter.
Take them over, and have them be run by the UN for a few years. Anyone know much about the UN's administration of East Timor? Look it up, you'll find the only problem with their running it was that they left too soon. Turns out the UN is actually quite good at running a country for the good of the people there. The UN has no interests in oil or the specific interests of a foreign government, they won't run it like a colony to extract wealth. They'll run it with giving the people a real future in mind.
We just have to put in the effort to hand it to them.
Interestingly mixed message/metaphor
And so..what exactly are you suggesting? Bomb them back to the Stoneage? That type of phrasing has been used before…General Curtis incinerate by fire raids LeMay, General nuke Korea/China,McArthur..and of course Vietnam et al…
I think No!
I've noticed the USA administration doesn't like the term "assassinated" when they are killing Iranian leaders. They prefer euphemisms such as "taken out" or "eliminated". But is is assassination pure and simple.
Al Jazeera uses assassination all the time.
Is this satire? reads like something Trump said, but as yet unreported.
Of course, and so what? The is the inevitable consequence of being directly attacked twice by Israel and the US – not for any actual cause, but mainly because Israel perceives them as being a regional competitor.
Every statement in that paragraph is an outright lie. Not having Israel and the US directly attacking Iran as they have multiple times since 1979 would reduce the levels of tension in a much simpler and less violent manner..
After all the only time that Iran as a state has directly ‘attacked’ the US was in 1979, was when students overran the US embassy in Teheran in 1979 and were supported by the new state, in that they didn’t evict them (and that is arguable).
The only time that I am aware of Iran directly targeting Israel was in 2024, when they fired missiles after Israel did a air-strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria with a excuse that really didn’t make sense at any level apart from ineffectual expediency of sending a ‘signal’.
Iran has regular elections that are probably about as fair as those in US and Israel bearing in mind the suppurating gerrymandering in both of those ‘democratic’ states.
Like it or not, all international law adheres to principle of national sovereignty for internal matters. This means that matters like Israel’s treatment of Palestinians inside the area that Israel controls. Like the minimum of 70 thousand people, mostly civilians and a majority of children and women, that the Israel state has murdered since October 2023 in Gaza. Much as I’d love to put Israel under a UN occupation for the crimes of murdering their citizens, I don’t think that is feasible. Nor do I think that would be for Iran or for that matter with the US if you look at historical massacres there.
If you weren’t a complete thoughtless dickhead, you’d have considered the basic issue of populations and the forces required. East Timor had something less than 1.4 million people. The UN authorised forces peaked at 8000+ troops and police. So about 0.58% of the population.
Iran has about 93 million people, so at the same kind of ratios (which would be way too low) that means a UN occupation of 5.3 million, that would re. Israel including the occupied concentration camps of West Bank and Gaza has about 14-15 million and a occupation force of 870 thousand.
Ignoring the questions about the difference between a armed and oppositional occupation (largely unlike East Timor), where exactly are the UN going to raise those kinds of force levels?
I’m guessing that you have empty space between your ears, much like empty space in Pete Hegseth’s understanding of how to run a viable military campaign
Thanks for responding to that absurd comment above lprent
My thanks too. I didn't have the energy.
Gaza and West Bank are occupied territories and not an internal matter.
The supply of weapons to non state actors in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Gaza – a proxy war against Israel (a state it wants to eliminate as Putin's Russia does Ukraine) and to secure control of the regions sea lanes, is not Iran acting within its sovereign orbit.
Nor is blocking IAEA inspections.
Comment deleted, iPrent covered it all
The font curse strikes again; iPrent is not available in the App Store.
We should be going no where near Iran, and we should stay away from anything to do with Donald Trump, he and Netanyahu are not rational and are keen on creating another Holocaust in the Middle East.
AKA "He said New Zealand has no combat capability that would be remotely useful in this conflict."
"Today it looks like Clark could be right."
Depends how you define "stop the war." If the Iranian government survives this current battle intact, it will continue the war it's been waging for decades against various countries. For Helen Clark, that's no skin off her nose so an entirely satisfactory outcome. The regime would continue making a mockery of "international law" but the UN wouldn't need to care about that. For the countries it's spent decades attacking via proxies or fomenting terrorism in, on the other hand, the war would not be stopped.
Two Hercules were sent over to the Middle East earlier on in this war, ostensibly to help evacuate Kiwis. Did those planes leave here with any SAS, or other military, on board