Iran says it is using all diplomatic channels to pursue the release of a prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky who was arrested by the Nigerian army last month.



“We have used all those channels to warn them [Nigeria] regarding this issue. So hopefully the government… would adopt wise action given the sensitive situation,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hoseyn Jaberi-Ansari told reporters in the capital, Tehran.

Sheikh al-Zakzaky after members of his Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) clashed with the army in the northern city of Zaria.

Campaign group Human Rights Watch said at least 300 IMN members were killed and quickly buried in a mass graves during the incident. The Nigerian military denied the claim.

The military accuses the pro-Iranian sect of trying to assassinate army chief Gen Tukur Buratai, which it denies.

Iran is currently embroiled in a diplomatic row with Saudi Arabia over the execution of a prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Shia in Nigeria
▪ Shia are minority in Nigeria but their numbers are increasing
▪ The IMN, formed in the 1980s, is the main Shia group led by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky
▪ They operate their own schools and hospitals in some northern states
▪ They have a history of clashes with the security forces
▪ The IMN is backed by Shia-dominated Iran and its members often go there to study
▪ Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed

BBC

http://www.juicygossips.com.ng/2016/01/we-have-used-all-channels-to-warn.html

How dare Iran try to dictate to Nigeria on how to run her internal issues, this is really a taste on our foreign policy

These Iranians are crazy. What's their business with our internal affairs? El-Zakzaky will rot in jail and Iran can go to hell.

May be they are not aware that nigeria is not an annex to Tehran...
They should first of all vent their anger on Saudi Arabia, which killed one their Sheiks few days ago .

Buhari MAKA WHY

Thank God the lilly livered Jonah, that could not even rein in his wife, is no more our president.

Iran, when you are tired of your diplomatic channels, you will keep quiet.

PMB order the re-shooting of any lawless group that does not recognise our constitution. Such group should relocate to Iran under Ayatollah, there is no space for such madness in Naija.

PMB follow Saudis and Bahrainis to recall our Ambassador.

To warn them? How condescending! Who the fcu.k do they think they are?
Is Zakzaky an Iranian? Isn't it part of the UN charter that nations must not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations?

seunmsg:
These Iranians are crazy. What's their business with our internal affairs? El-Zakzaky will rot in jail and Iran can go to hell.

seriously is like u dont know d meaning of jail and d type of people who goes there?and d reasons why they should go to jail,if any of ur family members protest because a governor locks her shop unlawfully and d polices arrested her because of dat i know u wont shout rot in jail,eleribu.

I believe all those making comments above are bereft of true knowledge of international affairs. Iran is the strongest military power in the middle-east after Isreal. Aside, it the most scientifically advanced Muslim nation in the world today. The sanctions impost by the west helped Iran to develop tremendously scientifically. Though geographical space will not allow for direct war engagement between Iran and Nigeria. but should there be conflict between the two nations at the moment, Iran has a superior edge to Nigeria on ratio 9:1, quote me anywhere.
The advantage stems from the fact that Iran like any other nation in the middle east, lives daily in the theatre of war and violence. All nations in the middle east are exponents in state sponsored terror and even the least of them like Jordan and Lebanon can unleash this act anywhere in the world.
for how long did the Amigos operate in Nigeria as business men before the government luckily discovered that they were here on espionage, and working for the Lebanese group, hezbolllar and stockpiling large cache of weapon enough to destroy a whole state.
The Iranians are more dastardly, and several Arab nations combined feared them. Iranians are not Arabs, but Persians and they speak a different language different from Arabic. There is not any reason why PMB at this critical time should be expanding the spectrum of conflict in Nigeria.
In international diplomacy, even before the age of globalisation and global terrorism, it is long well known that any nation that wants peace domestically, must understand deeply the 'connect' between domestic and international affairs.
The Iranians are sounding a genuine note of warning to PMB, and he had better heed it.
I tell people that care to listen, that Nigerians should thank God for Bokoharam for exposing the rot that we call armed forces that we have in Nigeria. had it been that it was a regular army from the outside that we have been engaging, the army would have been demystified in days.

I laugh when Buhari blames Jonathan for the problem of the army and bokoharam. The truth is that great nations prepare for wars in time of peace. So the question is, did all the leaders who ruled us in time of peace buy any weapon? no. the last set of Nigerian weapons were bought by Shehu Shagari and most of them have become unserviceable.
Not only that, none of the military leaders of northern extract that ruled Nigeria invested in significant infrastructure when in the office, including this Buhari, even though he only stayed for twenty months.
Weapons are very expensive to make, and even more expensive to buy. When you buy, you don't get the best version, because no one sells the best version of his weapon to the outside.
From the foregoing, it could not have been easy for Jonathan to procure and adequately deploy weapons while wars was going on. where was the time for the army to adequately train and man the newly acquired weapons. like the writer of this thread indicated above, the Saudis have good weapons, but they don't know how to use them. F16 is the most deadly fighter warplane ever made. yet the same plane in the inventory of the Saudis that is downed by rebels in yemen everyday is what the Turkish used to down Russian fighter in one attempt.

Another issues of significance was that, Jonathan performed well despite spending 1/4 of his entire yearly budget on the war on insurgency in the north east. not since 1999 has any leader been engaged in war and development at the same time, and still he had more infrastructure on ground that his two predecessors(OBJ and Yaradua) who never fought any war.

YarAdua created Bokoharam out of ineptitude. He killed the Bokoraham leader extra-judicially, and for no sensible reason. Had he not done the stupid act, we would not have been in this dilemma. And again, if he had quickly brought the perpetrators to book to show that the state was not behind the act, it would have been much easier I guess, to pacify the group before everything blew up.

PMB had better 'borrowed himself sound wisdom' as the yorabas would say, by avoiding the local grandstanding he is doing in Nigeria and for which illiterate Nigerians are telling him #babafireon, and do what is needful, and avoid adding international dimension to the insurgency dilemma.

Nigeria is not in the best position at the moment to handle any higher conflict, but to make good friends that can bail her out of the current quagmire.