Argentina to Iran: hand over terrorists

 

 

The prosecutor investigating the case, Alberto Nisman, made these demands in reaction to an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement saying that Iran was ready for “cooperation and constructive dialogue.” The statement came on the occasion of the 17th anniversary of the attack.

Argentina justice department officials believe Iran was behind the attack and has issued arrest warrants for Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi and five other Iranian citizens in addition to a Lebanese national.

Iran has strongly denied these allegations.

The Iranian statement added that Iran “condemns all terrorist actions, especially the one against the Argentinean Jewish center in 1994, and declares its solidarity with the families of the victims.” Nisman demanded the handover of all suspects as proof of its commitment.

“If the Iranians and their government are ready to cooperate, they should do so once and for all ,and the only way possible: by handing over all of those accused in this terrible terrorist attack… and not making statements devoid of content which lead nowhere,” Nisman said in a press statement.

Iran has agreed to “shed all possible light within he framework of the law and to help in preventing the investigation fro continuing on an erroneous course.”

Meanwhile, Jewish leaders in Argentina have criticized both countries for failing to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In an event at the rebuilt community center attended by Argentina’s President Kirchner, a Jewish community leader expressed his dissatisfaction with the “impunity, corruption, complacency, lies and hypocrisy” that has characterized the investigation.

He pointed to Argentina’s president at the time of the bombing who was charged by interfering in the investigation by protecting a businessman friend who had been implicated in the attack.

The Jewish community in Argentina was also outraged when Defense Minister Vahidi, who has an Interpol arrest warrant for his arrest, traveled to Bolivia in June and wasn’t arrested.

The Bolivian government expressed lack of awareness about any charges against Vahidi, saying Bolivia “had taken steps to ensure that Mr. Ahmad Vahidi left Bolivian territory immediately.” That didn’t placate the Argentian Jewish community, whose leaders called the Bolivian response “a huge farce.”

What was called for was not his expulsion, but his arrest,” said Aldo Donzis, a leader of the Argentinean Jewish community, which is the largest in Latin America and numbers about 300,000 people.

Argentina’s foreign ministry told the Jewish community it would send a complete report on the attack on the Jewish center, as well as the bombing two years earlier of the Israeli embassy in Argentina that left 29 dead.

President Kirchner has demanded the extradition of Vahidi and other Iranian officials several times in the past.

Ahmadi-Nejad, however, has countered by condemning Kirchner and accused her administration of pandering to the interests of the Jewish minority in Argentina.