Iran yesterday accused Argentina of interfering in its internal affairs and said these interventions are unwelcome, after the government last week criticized the appointment as defence minister of an Iranian fugitive wanted in the probe of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires City.
“The position adopted by the Argentine authorities has the clear objective of intruding in the internal affairs of the Islamic republic, and we firmly condemn these illegal actions,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said yesterday.
Argentina’s position is the result of “pressures, bribes and propaganda from Zionist lobbies,” Qashqavi said, according to IRNA Iran’s state-run news agency.
The Argentine government, as well as the local Jewish community, last Friday slammed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to nominate Ahmad Vahidi as defence minister.
Vahidi is one of five prominent Iranians sought by Argentina in the bombing, which killed 85 people. He was the commander of a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force at the time of the attack.