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Northern Ireland's new first minister says Hamas will be thought of as 'future partner for peace': report
Michelle O’Neill, the recently elected First Minister of Northern Ireland, said on Thursday that the terrorist organization, Hamas, would eventually be regarded as the “future partner for peace” in the Middle East.
In an interview on Tonight with Andrew Marr on British broadcaster, LBC, O’Neill stressed the importance of communication, comparing the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to ongoing peace talks within Northern Ireland.
In the interview, Marr asked her if the terrorist organization Hamas would “eventually” become regarded as a “partner for peace.”
“A long time ago the [Irish Republican Army] IRA was seen as a terrorist organization. The British Government and everybody else could not ever talk to them,” Marr said. “Do you think that Hamas, although regarded as a terror organization by many people around the world, is going to eventually have to be a partner for peace?”
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Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill (L) is interviewed after a press conference at the Foreign Press Association on February 8, 2024 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
“Yes,” O’Neill said, “I think you only have to look at our own example to know how important dialogue is and that’s the only way you’re ever going to bring an end to conflict.”
“If republicans didn’t talk to the British government or the British government didn’t talk to the republicans, in the past in Ireland we would not be in the scenario we are in today, enjoying a peaceful and far more equal society today,” the first nationalist First Minister of Northern Ireland continued.
The IDF claimed to have found documents, video footage, and photographs of Palestinian children used by Hamas Islamic Jihad as trained fighters. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
She also called for an immediate ceasefire and for the application of international law in Gaza.
“And I really only hope that in the coming days and weeks that we can get to a point where we see a ceasefire in the first instance, that we have dialogue, and that we get to the ultimate position of having the Palestinian state recognized and a two-state solution that the international community stands for,” O’Neill said.
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O’Neill argued that Israel was bombarding the Palestinian people and not defending themselves against the Hamas terrorists.
“Anybody can stretch Israel’s position of being one of defense because this is bombardment, day after day, slaughter of the Palestinian people,” O’Neill continued.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill during a press conference at Stormont Castle, Belfast, following the restoration of the powersharing executive. (Oliver McVeigh/PA Images via Getty Images)
“This needs to stop, and we need the international community to stand strong and to stay firm in the court of international law. That’s where everybody must be,” she said.
“And I really only hope that in the coming days and weeks that we can get to a point where we see a ceasefire in the first instance, that we have dialogue, and that we get to the ultimate position of having the Palestinian state recognized and a two-state solution that the international community stands for.’
Thomas Hand, foreground, and Michael Levy look at posters of Israelis held hostage by Hamas hung on a fence on East 55th Street in New York City. Hand’s daughter, Emily, 8, and Levy’s brother, Or, are among the 240 Israelis being held capitve in Gaza. (Sydney Borchers/Fox News Digital)
O’Neill also condemned the unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, saying that they had violated international law by taking hostages.
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“From day one, we’ve said that what happened on October 7 was wrong, and that does not apply in international law in any shape or fashion, the hostages taken was wrong,” she said.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz scolded Iran during this week’s U.N. Security Council meeting, saying Tehran “will not silence” the body following claims by the Islamic Republic’s representative that council members were spreading falsehoods about its recent attack targeting neighboring Gulf states.
“Let me remind you where you are,” Waltz told Iranian diplomat Amir Saeid Iravani. “This is the United States of America. This is the United Nations Security Council. You will not silence this body.”
Waltz’s remarks came during an emergency meeting of the council in response to drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait Sunday after new U.S. airstrikes against Iran.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz holds up images he said show the aftermath of Iranian drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait. (U.N. Security Council)
During his remarks, Iravani argued the council should not have met, while accusing the U.S., Bahrain and other members of lying.
“Once again, the representative of the United States has resorted to lies and disinformation against Iran in a desperate attempt to justify the US’s unlawful acts of aggression,” Iravani said.
He also rejected the “unfounded accusations made by certain Western members of the Council and the representative of Bahrain.”
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Ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani of Iran speaks during a Security Council meeting after members voted on draft resolution on reopening of Strait of Hormuz at U.N. Headquarters. (Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“Instead of addressing the root cause of the current crisis, they have ignored the unlawful aggression committed against Iran and sought to shift blame onto the victim,” he added. “Their double standards and hypocritical behavior have deprived them of any credibility to lecture others.”
In a post on X, Waltz reiterated his position.
“Iran will not silence us on our own soil,” he wrote. “That might work in Tehran, but not in the UN Security Council. We will tell the truth.”
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Firefighters work to extinguish fire in the aftermath of Iranian drone attacks, according to Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, at a location given as Bahrain, in this handout image released on June 11, 2026. (Ministry of Interior of the Kingdom of Bahrain/Handout via Reuters)
During the exchange, Waltz held up what he said were images of the aftermath of the Iranian attacks, including a family whose home in Bahrain was destroyed by a Shahed drone, a hotel full of tourists that was also hit and a building used by first responders that Waltz said was deliberately targeted.
“Are they lying?” Waltz said of the victims of the attack. “Is this hypocrisy? Is this what this council is here to denounce today? I ask the representative, are these lies? … I’d say not.”
Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Bahrain’s minister of foreign affairs, said that, since Feb. 28, the island nation has been subjected to 808 attacks comprising 203 ballistic missiles and 605 armed drones.
“These attacks deliberately targeted civilian facilities, critical infrastructure and residential areas, resulting in the deaths of three innocent civilians and injuries to 465 others,” he said, disputing Tehran’s claim that its aggression is directed solely against military objectives.
Washington and Tehran have repeatedly accused each other of violating a fragile ceasefire agreement. On June 27, President Donald Trump said U.S. forces struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran violated the deal.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz speaks after the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution calling for the unblocking of the Strait of Hormuz during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Iran and the Middle East at U.N. headquarters in New York April 7, 2026. (AFP via Getty Images)
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The exchanges of fire began when an Iranian drone struck a merchant vessel off Oman last week and the U.S. military retaliated, officials said.
“It is very possible that they will never learn! There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!”
In the city of Nabatieh, ambulance teams, civil defense units, scouts, municipal workers, and residents joined forces in a large cleanup campaign to remove rubble and reopen streets following extensive destruction caused by the Israeli war on Lebanon.
Published On 4 Jul 2026
It has been an interesting year and a half for the relationship between Canada and the United States, two countries marking birthdays this week. Canada turned 159 on Wednesday, and America is 250 on Saturday. It got us thinking about how much Americans really know about Canada.
Take our quiz and find out. To our American friends, because it’s your birthday we made it a little bit about you. And if you find it difficult, we’re sorry. Let’s start with an easy one.
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