Slaughterer Israel uses AMIA case to thwart Iran-LatAm relations

A top Iranian diplomat says Israel uses the case of 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing in the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires, to obstruct the development of relations between Iran and Latin American states.

“Iran has been charged of being connected with the AMIA incident by a regime which pursues state terrorism. The Zionist regime [of Israel] has been trying hard to disrupt Iran’s regular activities within Latin American countries under the pretext of AMIA bombing incident,” Ramin Mehmanparast said in an interview with IRNA on Saturday.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman added that the Israeli regime has been trying to falsely accuse the Islamic Republic of being involved in terrorist activities despite the fact that the Iranian nation is the biggest victim of terrorism and has always made every effort to eliminate this sinister phenomenon.

“The Zionist regime [of Israel] is still one of the biggest threats to security and stability in all regions including Latin America and this illegitimate regime should not be allowed to have a negative impact on the relations between Iran and the Latin American countries,” Mehmanparast noted.

He also pointed to the recent agreement between Iran and Argentina to set up an international truth commission to investigate the AMIA incident, saying that for the first time efforts are being made to shed light on the truth behind the AMIA incident.

On January 27, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Argentinean counterpart, Hector Timerman, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to shed light on the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead. AMIA stands for the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.

Argentina’s Senate on February 21 gave the green light to the agreement with Iran on the AMIA case with the senators voting 39-31 in favor of the MoU. Argentinean lawmakers later signed the agreement into law after a 14-hour session with 131 ayes against 113 nays.

Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Timerman have also endorsed the agreement, which stipulates that the fact-finding commission, composed of five foreign legal experts, should issue a report after carrying out an evaluation of Argentina’s investigation into the issue.

Under intense political pressure from the US and Israel, Argentina had formally accused Iran of having carried out the bomb attack. The Islamic Republic has categorically denied any involvement in the terrorist bombing.