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Republicans Urge Biden to ‘Immediately’ End Negotiations with Iran

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
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Republicans Urge Biden to ‘Immediately’ End Negotiations with Iran

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 12: US Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) (L) leaves after a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee at Hart Senate Office Building on May 12, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

US Republicans on Thursday stepped up calls on President Joe Biden to end talks to return to a nuclear agreement with Iran.

In a letter to Biden, Republican senators said that any sanctions relief would let Iran step up funding for Hamas.

"We call on you to immediately end negotiations with Iran, and make clear that sanctions relief will not be provided," said the letter led by Senator Marco Rubio and signed by all but six Senate Republicans.

"Doing so would demonstrate a firm commitment to our closest ally in the region and to our own security interests."

They also pointed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who “controls” Iran’s negotiating team in Vienna, while Tehran supports terrorism in the world.

Republican senators detailed the attacks by Palestinian terrorist groups – more than 1,000 missiles fired at Israel in the past few days.

“This includes the first missiles aimed at Jerusalem since 2014,” they reminded the president.

“The United States engaging in active negotiations with Iran and potentially providing billions of dollars in sanctions relief will no doubt contribute to Iran’s support of Hamas and other terrorist organizations who attack Americans and our allies,” the Senators wrote.

“In the wake of Hamas’ recent attacks on Israel, the United States should take all necessary measures to hold Tehran accountable and not ease sanctions on Iran under any circumstances,” they wrote.

In the same context, a group of US senators sent a letter to the international business community, warning companies against resuming trade with Iran if the Biden administration removes sanctions on Tehran to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Your member companies may see this potential removal of US sanctions on Iran as a lucrative opportunity. Trust us, they should not,” the letter read.

“If US sanctions on Iran were temporarily lifted and these firms decided to re-enter the Iranian market, they would be investing in ventures doomed to fail.

Any agreement that does not receive the broad and bipartisan support of Congress will not survive if a Republican is elected president in 2024. "Any sanctions relief will also be severely limited if Republicans win back majorities in Congress in 2022,” the group stressed.

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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
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Argentina to Put Iranians and Lebanese on Trial in Absentia over 1994 Jewish Center Bombing

People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
People hold pictures of victims during a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary the Mutual Israelite Association of Argentina (AMIA) bombing attack in Buenos Aires on July 18, 2024. (AFP)

An Argentine judge on Thursday ordered that the seven Iranians and three Lebanese citizens accused of involvement in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires face trial in absentia for the first time in the long-running case plagued by setbacks and controversy.

For years Argentine courts have ordered that the suspects — Iranian former officials and Lebanese nationals — be apprehended and brought before a judge because Argentina never allowed trials in absentia.

Past efforts to encourage foreign governments to arrest the suspects, including an influential advisor to Iran's supreme leader, on the basis of Interpol red alerts never gained traction.

But right-wing President Javier Milei, a loyal ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fierce critic of Iran who studies the Torah with a rabbi despite being born Catholic, pushed a bill through Congress earlier this year that authorizes trials in absentia for fugitives that have long sought to evade justice, allowing Argentina to put the defendants on trial for the first time.

On Thursday, Judge Daniel Rafecas approved the trial in absentia following a request from the special prosecutor’s office responsible for investigating the 1994 attack, the deadliest in the South American country’s history, which killed 85 people two years after a separate bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires killed 22 people.

Rafecas described the trial as the only way to avoid impunity now more than 30 years after the bombing.

“Trial in absentia, however limited, remains a tool that allows us, at the very least, to attempt to uncover the truth, reconstruct what happened, and, above all, give those representing the victims a place to express themselves publicly in this process,” he wrote in his ruling.

Last year, a high court in Argentina ruled that the Iranian government had masterminded the 1994 attack on the center, known by its acronym AMIA, and that members of Lebanon's Iran-backed group Hezbollah had carried it out.

Iran has long denied any involvement in the attacks.

Among the seven Iranians who are subject to Argentine arrest warrants are former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, former commander of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Rezaei and former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, who now advises Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The three Lebanese citizens include Salman Raouf Salman, who allegedly coordinated the attack, and fellow Hezbollah members Abdallah Salman and Hussein Mounir Mouzannar. All have been declared in contempt of court, in some cases decades ago.

Advancing the AMIA case has been a key goal of Milei, who concluded a trip to Jerusalem on June 12, the night before Israel launched its unprecedented air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear sites and military leadership.

Milei escalated his rhetoric against Iran and in support of Israel during the 12-day war between the regional foes, calling Iran “an enemy of Argentina” and praising Israel as “saving Western civilization.”