Deputy FM briefed on situation for people from NI in Middle East
BBCThe deputy first minister has attended a briefing from senior UK government security advisers about the situation in the Middle East.
Emma Little-Pengelly attended the meeting virtually alongside the first ministers of Scotland and Wales and said she was briefed about the issues facing people from Northern Ireland who live in the region.
The United States and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Saturday morning, followed by retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel and other locations - including in Bahrain, where the US has a naval base.
Little-Pengelly said First Minister Michelle O'Neill, of Sinn Féin, was invited to the briefing but did not attend and she did not know why.
BBC News NI has contacted Sinn Féin and the Executive Office for comment.
Little-Pengelly said there were many people from across Northern Ireland who would be apprehensive about their loved ones living in the Middle East.
She said she understood a registration scheme was likely to be set up for UK citizens living there and appealed for anyone eligible to take it up.
"There are many people across the UK that are in the region. I think it's estimated there's around 100,000 UK citizens living and working and visiting in the wider region as well," the Democratic Unionist Party assembly member said.
"There's a lot of families, a lot of ones here at home that will be very worried about them."
"We want to do everything that we can to make sure our citizens in the Middle East region are safe."
Little-Pengelly said she would continue to work closely with the UK government.
What have other politicians said?
Sinn Féin's foreign affairs spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire condemned the US and Israeli attacks on Iran as a dangerous and reckless act of aggression that risked plunging the region into wider war.
The TD (member of the lower house of Irish parliament) said the attacks on Iran had the "potential to cause profound instability in the region, and a spiral of violence that can spread to several neighbouring countries".
He added that civilians would be in "immediate danger".
Social Democratic and Labour Party leader, Claire Hanna, said she was "deeply alarmed by the escalating military confrontation".
"I am also concerned by reports that UK military aircraft are in the skies over or near Iran," the Belfast South and Mid Down MP said.
"The UK must urgently push for de-escalation, press for an immediate ceasefire, and work with international partners to prevent a wider war.
"Diplomacy, not further military action, must be the focus."
The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin has said he is "deeply concerned" about the risk of wider conflict in the Middle East.
"I strongly urge all parties to exercise restraint and to work to avoid that outcome," he said.
What have Iranians in Northern Ireland said?
Iman Talebian, a PhD student who has been in Northern Ireland for three months, said he would have no prospects of finding a job with a good salary if he lived in Iran.
"I think the vast majority of people are happy about the military intervention because they have no other choice - and they embrace the intervention," the 33-year-old said.
He added that people in Iran "were in lots of pain economically and the freedom is terrible".
Fatemeh Sadat Mosavi, who has grandparents and other family members in Iran, said Iranian people loved their country.
They hope Iran will be free as soon as possible and they can come back to their country and live like others," the 23-year-old said.
