Argentina Asks Interpol to Arrest Iran Minister over Jewish Center Bombing

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi during a press conference. Reuters
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi during a press conference. Reuters
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Argentina Asks Interpol to Arrest Iran Minister over Jewish Center Bombing

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi during a press conference. Reuters
Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi during a press conference. Reuters

Argentina has asked Interpol to arrest Iran's interior minister over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The Iranian minister, Ahmad Vahidi, is part of a delegation from Tehran currently visiting Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and Interpol has issued a red alert seeking his arrest at the request of Argentina, the ministry said in a statement.

Argentina has also asked those two governments to arrest Vahidi, it added, according to Agence France Presse.

On April 12, a court in Argentina placed blame on Iran for the 1994 attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and for a bombing two years earlier against the Israeli embassy, which killed 29 people.

The 1994 assault has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected the Iran-backed group Hezbollah carried it out at Iran's request.

Prosecutors have charged top Iranian officials with ordering the attack, though Tehran has denied any involvement.

The court also implicated Hezbollah and called the attack against the AMIA -- the deadliest in Argentina's history -- a "crime against humanity."

Tuesday's statement from the foreign ministry said: "Argentina seeks the international arrest of those responsible for the AMIA attack of 1994, which killed 85 people, and who remain in their positions with total impunity."

"One of them is Ahmad Vahidi, sought by Argentine justice as one of those responsible for the attack against AMIA," said the statement, which was co-signed by the security ministry.

Argentina has previously stated that Vahidi, a former senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, is one of the key masterminds of the AMIA bombing and sought his extradition.



UK Police Arrest Man for Arson after Fire at PM's House

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Border Security Summit in London, Britain March 31, 2025. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Border Security Summit in London, Britain March 31, 2025. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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UK Police Arrest Man for Arson after Fire at PM's House

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Border Security Summit in London, Britain March 31, 2025. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer leads a roundtable discussion at the Border Security Summit in London, Britain March 31, 2025. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

British police said on Tuesday they had arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of arson after counter-terrorism officers launched an investigation into three fires, including one at a property owned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Police were called to reports of a fire in the early hours of Monday morning at the property in Kentish Town, Camden, north London, the area that Starmer represents in parliament.

The man was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday in connection with the fire and two further incidents, Reuters quoted police as saying.

They are investigating whether a vehicle fire in the same district on 8 May and a fire at the entrance of a property in a nearby area on 11 May are linked to the incident on Monday.

The man, arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life, remains in custody, police said.

Officers from London's Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command were leading the investigation due to the property's connections with a high-profile public figure, police said.

Starmer lived in the house on a quiet street with his family before he moved into Number 10 Downing Street when he became prime minister last July.