Argentina, Israel Denounce Designation of Iranian Minister Involved in AMIA Bombing

Vahidi, along with the Secretary General of the Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, the key military officials in the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 (Photo: Tasnim).

The Argentine government and the Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the decision to name Ahmad Vahidi - one of the suspects in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires - as minister of Interior in the new government proposed by Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi.

Argentina expressed its strong condemnation of the appointment of Ahmad Vahidi to a ministerial position in Iran, the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement, according to AFP.

It added that the government headed by Prime Minister Alberto Fernandez considered Vahidi’s appointment as an insult to the Argentine judiciary and the victims of the terrorist attack against the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.

Vahidi is one of the most prominent Iranian officials who are being prosecuted by the Argentine judiciary, for assuming “a key role in the decision-making and planning of the attack that took place on July 18, 1994” against a center for the Argentine Jewish Association. An international arrest warrant against him is issued by the Interpol police, according to the statement.

The Buenos Aires bombing killed 85 people. Twenty-seven years later, no one has been arrested. Among the wanted officials, the Iranian Supreme Leader’s adviser on international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, who was foreign minister at the time, the Secretary-General of the Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei, and the former Minister of Security, Ali Fallahian.

Vahidi was the first commander of the Quds Force, the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards, before leaving his position in 1998 to be taken over by General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by an American strike in Baghdad early last year.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry called on the international community to condemn Vahidi’s appointment. A tweet on Israel’s Farsi account said that Vahidi, Iran’s new interior minister, “is a criminal wanted by the International Police for killing 85 innocent people in the horrific attack on a Jewish building in Buenos Aires.

In another tweet, the Israeli Foreign ministry reiterated its description of Raisi as the “butcher from Tehran,” noting that he was responsible for putting to death thousands of Iranian dissidents when he served as head of the country’s judiciary.