The World Briefly
June 21, 2024Warming Up Cold Cases
Argentina
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Argentina declassified a confidential intelligence report from 2003 this week that provided new insights into Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, MercoPress reported.
Released Wednesday, the report detailed the roles of key figures, including then-Iranian cultural attaché Moshen Rabbani, who facilitated the attack under the guise of business activities. It also implicates former Iranian Ambassador Hadi Soleimanpour and Samuel El Reda, linked to Hezbollah’s operational groups.
The attack on Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters – orchestrated by the Lebanese-based Hezbollah at Iran’s behest – killed 85 people and injured more than 300 others. Who was behind the attack has never been solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected the Iran-backed group Hezbollah carried it out at Iran’s request.
The document’s release comes two months after Argentina’s highest criminal court affirmed the involvement of Iran and Hezbollah in the bombing.
In April, the Court of Cassation ruled that the bombing was done in retaliation for Argentina halting nuclear cooperation with Iran in the mid-1980s, the Associated Press wrote.
That verdict will allow victims’ families to pursue legal action against Tehran and underscores significant judicial developments after years of scandals and unresolved issues, the newswire wrote.
Even so, it failed to provide new evidence, leaving victims’ families in limbo as they await justice.
At the same, Argentina has asked Interpol to arrest Iran’s interior minister, Ahmad Vahidi, for his involvement in the bombing, France 24 wrote. He is a military commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
In a separate development, Canada designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization Wednesday, a decision that puts more pressure on European governments to follow suit, the Guardian added.
The designation will allow authorities to charge individuals supporting the IRGC financially or materially and order banks to freeze assets linked to the organization.
The move, long demanded by Canada’s Iranian diaspora, follows the IRGC’s downing of Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 in 2020, killing 176, including numerous passengers with ties to Canada.
Iran condemned the designation, citing IRGC’s role in fighting the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and elsewhere.
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