{"id":28095,"date":"2026-03-09T09:57:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28095"},"modified":"2026-03-09T09:57:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:57:37","slug":"nigeria-appoints-new-envoys-to-iran-and-israel-as-tension-escalate","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigeria-appoints-new-envoys-to-iran-and-israel-as-tension-escalate\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria appoints new envoys to Iran and Israel as tension escalate  \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Nigeria has appointed new envoys to Iran and Israel as tension in the Middle East intensifies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Officials say the appointments are indicative of Nigeria&#8217;s efforts to strengthen its diplomatic presence abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">President Bola Tinubu announced the posting of Salau Mohammed as Nigeria&#8217;s new <\/span><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Ambassador to Iran, while Nkechi Ufochukwu has been posted to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Their posting is alongside 63 others to represent Nigeria in various countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">The appointments come as the middle east faces heightened tensions following military strikes and retaliatory actions between Israel and Iran, and their allies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The situation has so far led to the deaths of over <span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">1 000 people, including Iran&#8217;s leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some American soldiers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">Mohammed, a career diplomat, previously represented Nigeria in the Gulf region, while Ufochukwu, a non-career diplomat, served as a Special Adviser in the administration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">The <\/span><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">ambassadors were nominated by\u00a0Tinubu last year, and confirmed by the Senate in December.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16274,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-28095","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigeria has appointed new envoys","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28096,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28095\/revisions\/28096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}