New head of Middle East & Africa Division

Former Los Angeles-based diplomat Darryl Dunn has taken up a new position as Director of the Middle East and Africa Division of the Ministry in Wellington, Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Murdoch said today.

Mr Dunn, an Arabic speaker, is a career diplomat who has served in the Middle East, Europe, the South Pacific and North America. He was posted to the New Zealand Embassy in Baghdad 1979-82. He was Consul-General in Los Angeles from 2000 until 2004.

New Zealand's representation in the Middle East and Africa centres on posts in Ankara, Pretoria, Riyadh and Teheran. Prime Minister Helen Clark recently announced that New Zealand would open an Embassy in Cairo in 2006.