Iran Rejects Argentine President’s AMIA Case Comments
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed President of Argentina Mauricio Macri’s comments about lack of cooperation from Iran on the case of bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in the 1990s as a “distortion of reality.”
“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns acts of terrorism in any part of the world and in any shape. Accordingly, Tehran has repeatedly condemned the AMIA bombing since it took place and has expressed sympathy with the families of its victims,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday.
His comments came after Macri used the podium at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly to call on Iran to cooperate with Argentine courts in taking to justice those responsible for the AMIA incident and another bombing attack in Buenos Aires that killed over a hundred people and injured hundreds more, back in 1992 and 1994.
Qassemi said Iran has even accepted Argentina’s call for talks about the AMIA case as a gesture of goodwill for fact-finding and rule of justice, saying while Tehran and Buenos Aires signed a memorandum of understanding on the issue in January 2013, the Argentine government is not ready to carry out an agreement that it has signed itself.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes its preparedness for constructive cooperation with Argentine officials and has proposed a new initiative for meetings between the two countries’ judicial officials in this regard,” he underlined.
In 2013, Argentina’s Senate voted to approve an agreement with Iran on the establishment of a fact-finding committee to investigate the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in 1994.
AMIA stands for the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.