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.



North Korea Denounces ‘Absurd’ Denuclearization Pledge by US and Allies 

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) clapping during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 10,000 flats in Pyongyang's Hwasong area, North Korea, 16 February 2025 (issued 17 February 2025). (EPA/KCNA)
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) clapping during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 10,000 flats in Pyongyang's Hwasong area, North Korea, 16 February 2025 (issued 17 February 2025). (EPA/KCNA)
TT

North Korea Denounces ‘Absurd’ Denuclearization Pledge by US and Allies 

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) clapping during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 10,000 flats in Pyongyang's Hwasong area, North Korea, 16 February 2025 (issued 17 February 2025). (EPA/KCNA)
A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) clapping during a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of 10,000 flats in Pyongyang's Hwasong area, North Korea, 16 February 2025 (issued 17 February 2025). (EPA/KCNA)

North Korea's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it will keep bolstering its nuclear force, denouncing a recent joint pledge by the United States, South Korea and Japan for its denuclearization, according to state media KCNA.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi held talks on Saturday on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich and issued a statement, reaffirming their commitment to North Korea's complete denuclearization.

Pyongyang's foreign ministry criticized the countries for pursuing an "outdated, absurd" plan, warning against seeking what it called "foolish acts inciting collective hostility and conflicts."

"As long as the US and its vassal forces' hostile threat exists, the DPRK's nukes are means for defending peace and sovereignty and a means for legitimate self-defense entrusted by the constitution of the state," an unnamed ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by KCNA, vowing to continue strengthening its nuclear force.

The spokesperson was referring to North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

South Korea's foreign ministry urged the North to cease its illicit weapons programs and return to the path to denuclearization.

"North Korea will never be recognized as a nuclear weapons state," ministry spokesperson Lee Jae-woong told a briefing. "We hope that they will realize that the development of nuclear weapons and missiles will only hinder their own security and economic development."

The three-way meeting was their first since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, who held unprecedented summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term and has touted their personal rapport.

South Korean lawmakers, after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service, have said that Pyongyang's recent missile tests were in part intended to "show off its US deterrent assets and drawing Trump's attention."

Also in Seoul, South Korea's military said on Tuesday it has deployed a domestically developed new bunker buster missile named the Korean Tactical Surface to Surface Missile (KTSSM).

The missile - nicknamed Ure, which means thunder in Korean - is capable of conducting simultaneous, precision strikes in a short span of time against North Korea's long-range artillery systems that could threaten the greater Seoul area in the event of a contingency, the military said in a press release.