Argentina asks Qatar to arrest Iran official for alleged role in 1994 AMIA bombing

Argentina has asked Qatar to arrest an Iranian official for his suspected involvement in a devastating 1994 terror attack on a Buenos Aires Jewish center, according to report on October 18.

The AMIA Jewish center bombing, allegedly carried out by Hezbollah terrorists funded by Iran, killed 85 and injured hundreds, The Times of Israel reports. 

Argentina’s justice department on Monday asked Qatar to detain Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s vice president for economic affairs, so he can be tried in Argentina for the bombing, Reuters reported.

Rezaei is currently in Qatar, which does not have an extradition treaty with Argentina, the report said.

“The accusation made against him arises from his proven participation at the meeting in which carrying out the attack on AMIA’s headquarters was decided,” said Argentine federal judge Daniel Rafecas in an official letter to Qatar.

Rezaei, a former leader of Iran’s paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is wanted by Argentina on an Interpol “Red Notice” because of the attack.

On July 18, 1994, a van packed with explosives crashed into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in the country’s deadliest-ever attack.

Iran and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah have long been linked to the suicide bombing. Based on the investigations of Argentine Jewish prosecutor Alberto Nisman, six Iranians and one Lebanese have been on Interpol’s most-wanted list since 2007.

However, Iranians accused of involvement in the plot are still able to move about freely, including Rezaei.

In January, a public appearance by Rezaei at the investiture of Nicaragua’s president angered Argentina and drew a harsh response from its Foreign Ministry, which called Rezaei’s presence “an affront to Argentine justice and to the victims of the brutal terrorist attack″ in the Argentine capital.

The bombing has long been a source of controversy in Argentina.

Argentina’s current Vice President Cristina Kirchner has faced serious allegations of trying to cover up Iran’s role in the attack. The claim against her was filed in January 2015 by Nisman, who was found dead in his apartment just hours before he was to present evidence against then-president Kirchner. She was absolved of charges last year.

Nisman’s efforts to prosecute five Iranian officials, including Rezaei and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were cut short when Kirchner’s administration signed a deal with Iran in 2013 to set up a Tehran-based joint commission to investigate the attacks.

In July, on the anniversary of the attack, the US urged countries around the world to step up action against Hezbollah.

Emphasizing Iran’s sponsorship of the attacks, the US State Department called on more capitals to join “more than a dozen countries across Europe, South America, Central America, and the Pacific [that] have issued national level designations, bans, or other restrictions” against Hezbollah.

The New York Times said in a July report that Israel’s Mossad spy agency believes the AMIA bombing and another attack in Buenos Aires in the 1990s were authored and executed by Hezbollah, and Iran did not have an operational, “on the ground” role, as originally thought.

A Mossad dossier on the attacks detailed in the report said that while Iran approved, and provided funding, equipment and training for the deadly attacks, it was not directly involved.