The Jewish community here have expressed vehement opposition to Argentina and Iran’s agreement to create a “truth commission” to probe the bombing of a Jewish centre that killed 85 people.
Argentine prosecutors have accused top Iranian officials of involvement in the bloody 1994 bombing of the seven-storey building that housed the Israelite Argentine Mutual Aid Association (AMIA).But on Sunday, President Cristina Kirchner announced a deal with Tehran to set up a probe by a commission composed of five independent jurists - none of whom would be from either Iran or Argentina. Calling the agreement historic, she said it may allow Argentine authorities to finally question those for whom the global police agency Interpol has issued “red notices” urging member states to execute Argentine arrest warrants.
Since 2006, Argentina has sought the extradition of eight Iranians, including current Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati.
The country’s two largest Jewish organisations, the AMIA and the Delegation of Israelite Argentine Associations, declared in a joint statement that the creation of a commission “would imply a decline in our sovereignty.”
“To ignore everything that the Argentine justice has done and to replace it with a commission ... constitutes, without doubt, a reversal in the common objective of obtaining justice,” the groups said.