Lower House debates Iran agreement bill

Lawmakers were debating at the Lower House of Congress a government-sponsored bill preliminary approved by the Senate, which authorizes the bilateral agreement between Iran and Argentina in order to investigate the AMIA bombing in 1994.

In today’s session, which was expected to last until Thursday's first hours, lawmakers debated the decision reached by the Foreign Relations and Justice and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which was defended by Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and later supported by Kirchnerite lawmakers and allies.

Earlier this morning, the head of the Kirchnerite caucus in the Lower House, Agustín Rossi, had assured that the session would manage to “muster quorum and a little bit more."

In order to gather the necessary amount of lawmakers needed to begin a session, the ruling party asked Tucuman’s Social Development minister Beatriz Mirkin to resign so she could return to her seat in the Lower House, which she had left after taking a leave of absence.

Chubut’s Cabinet chief Carlos Eliceche made the same decision.

The ruling party is looking to ratify an agreement between Argentina and Iran that would allow Argentine authorities to question those Iranian officials who have been accused by a local court of being a part of the AMIA bombing of 1994 that left 85 people dead.