CFK delivers message last night

AMIA accord with Iran sent to Congress

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in a recorded message from her Government House office aired last night as a national broadcast, defended her government’s accord with Iran to form a truth commission to investigate the deadly 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires and announced that the agreement will be sent for debate and approval by Congress.

“The memorandum of understanding we have signed is a step toward unblocking a case that has been paralyzed for 19 years,” she said. The President said the decision to question Iranian suspects in Tehran did not amount to a breach of Argentina sovereignty. Argentine judges had questioned suspects abroad on other occasions, she said.

The accord “will allow Argentina to interrogate those incriminated in the Argentine courts,” she added.

The attack came two years after a group linked to Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29. Tehran has denied links to either attack. Argentine courts say the AMIA attack was sponsored by Iran. Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi is among those sought by Argentina. The five “truth commissioners” will be jointly named and will not be residents of Argentina or Iran.

Fernández de Kirchner also complained about Israel’s criticism of the Iran accord, saying that no Israelis had been killed in the 1994 bombing and urged Israel to take more interest in the 1992 bombing of its embassy in Buenos Aires that she said is being probed by the Supreme Court.

The President’s 30-minute message included footage of her appearances at UN general assemblies where she had urged Iran to collaborate, and also showed Néstor Kirchner, her late husband and predecessor, addressing the case at the UN while president.

The accord states that the commission “will give its vision and issue a report with recommendations about how the case should proceed within the legal and regulatory framework of both parties.”

“Forming a commission which does not fall under Argentine criminal law marks a decline of our sovereignty,” said a statement recently issued by Argentina’s two main Jewish groups, AMIA and DAIA.

—Herald with DyN, Telam, Reuters