AMIA: Jewish community calls for Iran deal annulment

The Simon Wiesenthal Center came on stage today to reject the Argentina-Iran deal signed last week to jointly investigate the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires, following the rejection of AMIA and DAIA Jewish community centres.

In a communiqué sent to reporters, the Center first said that "AFP has reported that Iranian Defense Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, accused by Argentine authorities as complicit in the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish Center bombing, will not be subject to interrogation under the terms of the recently announced Argentine-Iranian ‘Truth Committee’ agrrangement."

And stressed: “This deal breaker obliges Argentina to immediately anull this shameful farce”.

"Only last week, Argentine Foreign Minister, Héctor Timerman, had assured families of the victims that Vahidi would indeed be among those to be interrogated. Today’s announcement confirms our January 27 claim that this Argentine-Iranian bilateral agreement is an exercise in whitewash for Iranian-sponsored terrorism," Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Center said.

And warned that "it will only encourage future acts of further AMIA-style violence across Latin America by Hezbollah sleepers remotely controlled by Tehran."

“Tehran has always denied its implication in the AMIA atrocity, and will never cooperate to find the truth and achieve justice. Was the Vahidi exemption prompted by threat or promise of immunity," suggested Sergio Widder, the Centre’s Director for Latin America.

“As the Argentine Senate prepares to debate this so-called ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, we urge the legislators to feel the pain of the AMIA families, twice victimized: In 1994 by Iranian sponsored terror; In 2013 by Iranian mockery," they stressed.

"Senators, call for the immediate annulment of this outrageous deal!,” Samuels and Widder concluded.