‘Disappointing’ NI First Minister not at UK briefings on Iran – Little-Pengelly

The deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland has said it is “genuinely disappointing” that First Minister Michelle O’Neill did not attend a second UK Government briefing on the situation in Iran.

Emma Little-Pengelly said the intention of the briefings, the first of which she attended on Saturday and then on Monday, were to “inform us about the impact of this conflict”.

Ms O’Neill said she was in “ongoing contact with the Irish and British governments” but that she “will not be part of any briefing by the British Government on their military operations”.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said he would not “argue the toss about whether the intervention of the weekend was legal or not”, adding that the UK “should have been involved earlier”.

Ms Little-Pengelly told MLAs later that she was “absolutely baffled” that “some appear to support” the Iranian regime, and claimed that Sinn Fein “have had a long-running relationship with Iran”.

Iran and Iranian-backed militias have fired missiles at Israel and Arab states, while Israel and the US pounded targets in Iran as the war in the Middle East expanded.

Cyprus said a drone attack targeted a British base, RAF Akrotiri, hours after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that American forces would be allowed to use British bases to strike Iranian missile sites.

About 300,000 Britons are believed to be in countries targeted by Iran, and 102,000 are registered with the Foreign Office for updates, as officials examine all options, including a potential mass evacuation.

Asked about her decision not to attend the briefing at the weekend with her Executive counterpart, Ms O’Neill said she had engaged with the UK and Irish governments and her first priority remained seeing those travelling or working in the region “extracted from what is potentially a very dangerous and catastrophic situation”.

She told reporters at Stormont: “We all know, actually, many people that are there and we all know that people are really, really worried, families are really, really anxious.

“Our job is to try to remain engaged and to get those people safely extracted. But I fundamentally disagree with the fact that the war has begun, and I fundamentally disagree with the British Government’s approach.”

Speaking earlier, she said: “I think this is a reckless war. This is a war that should never have begun.

“Where is this all going to end? Because over the course of the last 48 hours, things are really spiralling out of control.

“We see more and more countries are now engaged in this war. This is death, this is destruction. This is not going to bring about a peaceful outcome.

“What we need to see is dialogue, what we need to see is adherence to international law, what we need to see is conversation that actually brings this to an end and allows people to safely get on with their lives.

“With what has happened over the course of the last 48 hours, I’m just fearful for where this is all going to go and I think it is absolutely the wrong call of the British Government to join in this war, to join and all that’s happening in the Middle East, because I again, I just don’t see where’s the cut-off point? Where are they going to stop?”

Ms O’Neill described the Iranian regime as “brutal”, “repressive” and one that “failed to live up to human rights standards”, but “it’s not for the international community to come in, breach international law, throw out the rules of diplomacy, and actually have us in a situation where today lives are being lost hour after hour”.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the Iranian regime “has had very strong connections with terrorists who tried to destroy Northern Ireland”, and that the Iranian people now had the opportunity “to pursue democracy for their own benefit and nobody else’s”.

“I shed no tears for the ayatollah, and I won’t concern myself about whether individuals want to argue the toss about whether the intervention of the weekend was legal or not,” he said.

“This happened. This regime was trying to assassinate the president of the United States, supports terror all around the world, and he’s gone.”

Asked if he supported the UK Government’s involvement, he said: “I think it is a matter of fact that we are involved. I think we should have been involved earlier. At least we shouldn’t have denied the use of our RAF bases.”

Speaking during Executive Office questions later on Monday, Ms Little-Pengelly described a “murderous, appalling regime” in Iran.

“I absolutely stand with the Iranians who have suffered from this oppressive, evil regime for many, many decades. I am absolutely baffled as to why some in this chamber support, or appear to support that regime,” she told MLAs.

She went on to claim: “When I looked up why that possibly could be, it was very clear that, for example, Sinn Fein have had a long-running relationship with the Iranian regime going back many, many decades.

“I do not understand that. They oppress women’s rights, they have murdered women for the audacity for not wearing a head shawl. They have killed people because they are LGBT. They have been a source of supporting terror right across not just that region, but across the globe, they have been a regime that has been oppressive and evil and murderous, and it does not deserve any support from any single person in this chamber.”

After her briefing at PSNI headquarters in Belfast on Monday, Ms Little-Pengelly said she was not given a number for people from Northern Ireland currently in countries being targeted by Iran but that “registration across the United Kingdom is in excess of 120/130,000”, marking “a significant increase from yesterday”.

She told reporters: “The scale of the numbers of people from across the UK in the region, well in excess of 100,000, that does make emergency evacuation very challenging. I would suspect that would be unprecedented in terms of numbers for evacuation.

“But I think it’s really important that we continue to keep a very close eye on what is happening day in and day out over the next number of days.”

Ms Little-Pengelly said it was “genuinely disappointing” that Ms O’Neill had chosen not to attend the briefing.

“The reality is this, we are not being asked our view on military manoeuvres or tactics, that is not the role of these briefings.

“These briefings will give us an overview about what is happening in a military sense, in the region, to inform us about the impact of this conflict on the UK, on us here in Northern Ireland, but in particular, all those many thousands of people that are in the region at the moment that are very apprehensive.”

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the US-Israeli air strike campaign that began at the weekend had killed 555 people in Iran so far.