New Zealand joins 21 nations condemning Iranian-linked attacks on Jewish communities

New Zealand has joined twenty-one other countries in condemning what Western governments describe as an Iranian-backed campaign targeting Jewish communities, dissidents, journalists and American interests across Europe, North America and Australia.

Released by the United States State Department, the joint statement accuses Iranian security agencies and their proxies of involvement in attacks, intimidation campaigns and other hostile activities directed at Jewish and Israeli interests as well as Iranian dissidents abroad. The statement names Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Intelligence Organisation, the Quds Force, and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security as responsible for hostile actions targeting Iranian dissidents, journalists, and Jewish and Israeli communities and interests. It also condemns a recent campaign of attacks across Europe claimed by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which Western governments allege is supported by Iranian intermediaries.

HAYI is alleged by the US Department of Justice to function as little more than a front for operations by the Iranian proxy Kataib Hezbollah. Several of the attacks it has claimed have targeted synagogues and Jewish community facilities in Europe, including what has been described as the first such arson attack in North Macedonia’s modern history.

For New Zealand, the declaration represents a meaningful escalation from the position Wellington adopted in August last year. When Australia expelled its Iranian ambassador and moved to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation following intelligence linking Tehran to the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, Foreign Minister Winston Peters issued a statement saying New Zealand “unequivocally condemns Iran’s actions, including through proxies,” describing state-sponsored attacks designed to “sow discord” as “completely unacceptable.” Peters instructed Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials to convey New Zealand’s concerns directly to Tehran’s representative in Wellington, but stopped short of expelling the ambassador or designating the IRGC.

The new joint statement goes further in both scope and attribution. Where the 2025 response focused primarily on attacks within Australia, the current declaration demands an immediate halt to what the signatories describe as lethal plotting and other malign actions across Europe, North America, and Australia, directed against Iranian dissidents, journalists, and Jewish and Israeli communities and interests. The signatories note that the relationship between Iranian security services and international and local criminal networks is long-standing and that the use of such groups is deplorable.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry welcomed the statement, asserting that the Islamic regime in Iran represents the foremost threat to global security and calling on the international community to confront it.

For Jewish communities in New Zealand and across the Western world, the significance of the declaration extends beyond the condemnation itself. The explicit naming of Jewish communities alongside journalists and dissidents as targets of state-linked hostile activity suggests that Western governments increasingly view some forms of antisemitic violence not merely as a hate crime, but as a national security concern. That framing carries meaningful implications — for intelligence cooperation, for the architecture of future responses, and for how governments conceptualise their obligations toward Jewish citizens.

What concrete measures may follow remains to be seen. The statement commits the signatories to countering such activities but does not specify mechanisms. New Zealand’s participation nonetheless places Wellington clearly within the coalition of democracies that regard Iranian transnational repression — including violence directed at Jewish communities — as requiring a coordinated international response.