Iran and Argentina, to the chagrin of Israel, have announced that they have reached an agreement regarding the AMIA explosion case.
ISNA reports that the Iranian and Argentine foreign ministers met on the sidelines of an African Union meeting in Addis Ababa and announced: “The two sides, after several meetings at the level of foreign ministry experts, have reached an agreement to establish a framework to pursue the AMIA case.”
On July 18, 1994, an explosion at AMIA, a Jewish community centre building in Buenos Aires, killed 85 people.
Argentina later accused Iran of involvement in that incident as well as a 1992 explosion at the Israeli embassy in the same city.
Yesterday’s announcement emphasizes that the two sides are prepared to cooperate and have sought independent legal experts to reveal the truth about this incident.
The French press has reported that Israel is “astounded” by the agreement between Iran and Argentina. A spokesman for the Israeli government said that Israel considers itself directly involved in the case and it expected to be consulted by Argentina, and he accused Iran of negotiating in bad faith.
Argentina has accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ international arm, the Qods Force, of involvement in the AMIA bombing and it issued arrest warrants for former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati and the head of the IRGC, Mohsen Rezayi.
Iran, however, claims the case is mired in “political scheming” and it has offered to cooperate with Argentina to resolve it.
