FALCON POWERS – Argentina announced on Tuesday that it has requested the arrest of Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi through Interpol on charges of his involvement in the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994.
The Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Vahidi is “currently part of an Iranian delegation visiting Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Interpol has issued a red notice against him based on Argentina’s request.”
The Argentine government has also requested Pakistan and Sri Lanka to arrest the Iranian minister and extradite him to Argentina.
On April 12, an Argentine court held Tehran responsible for two deadly attacks targeting the Jewish community in the country three decades ago. In 1992, an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires resulted in the death of 29 people, followed by a truck bombing at the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) center in the capital two years later, killing 85 people and injuring 300 others. More than three decades after these attacks, the Second Chamber of the Argentine Criminal Cassation Court held Iran accountable for them, declaring it a “terrorist state.”
The court also accused the Lebanese Hezbollah party, supported by Tehran, and described the attack on the AMIA center as the bloodiest crime in Argentina’s history, calling it a “crime against humanity.”
On Tuesday, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Buenos Aires stated in a statement that “Argentina seeks the international arrest of those responsible for the attack on the AMIA center in 1994, which resulted in the death of 85 people, who are still in positions of power with complete impunity.”
It added that one of these wanted individuals is “Ahmad Vahidi, wanted by Argentine justice as one of the individuals responsible for the attack on the AMIA center.”
