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The Federal Government has initiated the evacuation of Nigerians in Iran who wish to leave, facilitating their safe passage across the Armenia border amid escalating regional tensions.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman and CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, confirmed the operation in a post on her X account on Tuesday.
According to Dabiri-Erewa, officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Tehran are coordinating the evacuation, ensuring that citizens who opt to leave Iran are safely escorted into Armenia.
Read Also: Iran Vows Full Oil Blockade Until War Ends
“The willing Nigerians in Iran are being safely guided across the Armenia border by officials from the Nigerian Embassy in Tehran, ensuring a smooth and secure process for those seeking to depart,” she stated.
She also reassured that, to date, no Nigerian has been harmed amid the ongoing tensions and that embassy personnel remain on hand at the border to provide assistance and support to evacuees.
The evacuation, carried out in collaboration with Armenian authorities, forms part of the Federal Government’s effort to safeguard Nigerians abroad during emergencies. It emphasizes the government’s vigilance over developments in the Middle East and its commitment to protecting the welfare of citizens overseas.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared on Tuesday they would not allow a single litre of oil to leave the Middle East as long as US and Israeli strikes continued, triggering the most explicit threat Trump has issued in the eleven-day war and sending oil markets into a historic $30 swing before partially reversing on Trump’s signals of a swift end to hostilities.
“Tehran will not allow one liter of oil to be exported from the region if US and Israeli attacks continue,” the IRGC spokesperson said in a statement carried by state media. “We are the ones who will determine the end of the war.”
Trump responded within hours at a Miami press conference, then reinforced the warning on Truth Social: “If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them.”
He also warned that the US had held back its most destructive targets. “We’ve left some of the most important targets for later, in case we need to do it,” Trump said. “If we hit those targets, it’s going to take many years for them to be rebuilt. They have to do with electricity production and many other things.”
Brent crude peaked at $119.50 per barrel on Monday, its highest level since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 — before plunging more than 10 percent on Tuesday as markets absorbed Trump’s comments predicting a quick end to the war and reports of imminent US sanctions waivers on Russian oil.
The US stock market careened through a manic Monday, going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into hope that the war with Iran may not last long. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday found 67 percent of Americans expected gas prices to rise further in coming months, and only 29 percent approved of the war — political pressure that was visibly shaping Trump’s price management messaging. Attacks on merchant ships near the strait have killed at least seven mariners, according to the International Maritime Organization.
By March 9, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz had dropped by 90 percent, with more than 150 vessels anchored outside the strait. Insurance companies had withdrawn coverage and oil companies had suspended shipments. The deficit amounted to 8 to 10 million barrels per day, figures the market could not cover from alternative sources. The Saudi East-West pipeline and Abu Dhabi pipeline could redirect a maximum of 10 to 12 million barrels per day between them, leaving a structural gap that no combination of strategic reserve releases or sanctions waivers could fully bridge in the short term.
Read Also: Dangote Fertilizer Wins Big As Iran War Cuts Global Supply
After a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump announced the US would waive oil-related sanctions on “some countries” to ease the shortage. Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin had “voiced a few ideas regarding a quick political and diplomatic settlement.” Three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the primary beneficiary of the waiver was likely to be Russia, enabling Indian and Chinese refiners to purchase stranded Russian crude — an arrangement that would ease global supply but complicate Washington’s Ukraine sanctions architecture. Trump declined to specify which countries would benefit, saying only there would “be so much peace” that sanctions might not need to be reimposed.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi ruled out any resumption of negotiations with Washington in an interview with PBS, describing the bitter experience of the three rounds of talks that preceded the strikes. “After three rounds of negotiation, the American team in the negotiations said itself that we had made big progress. Still, they decided to attack us. So I don’t think talking to the Americans anymore would be on our agenda anymore,” Araqchi said. The statement closed off the diplomatic track that the Omani-mediated process had kept open as recently as February 27 — the day before the war began — when Oman’s foreign minister had described “significant progress” in talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
