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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"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.

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