'The commision came up from an Iranian request,' Timerman

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman assured today that the creation of the joint commision to investigat the AMIA bombing “came up from an Iranian request” and revealed that Iran tried to set up a series of conditions which were rejected by Argentina.

“It was an idea that came up from an Iranian request that I accepted because considering the prestige the commission will have, its members can be those who tell what happens during the Tehran questionings. That is an advantage for Argentina,” Timerman said in an interview with Tiempo Argentino newspaper.

The Commission’s aim will receive all information and make a report to both governments: ‘its five members will then say: this is what we think.’

Regarding the conditions Iran tried to impose, Timerman said they were not worth mentioning “because Argentina could not accept them.”

As for the jurists Argentina will nominate for the Commission, the minister recalled that “that is a decision that the President will make from a list that is being put together. We are working to get the best international jurists. Because the higher the juridic capacity and its moral auuthority, the interests and rights of justice will be better defended. The most important thing for us is that the comission has such a high level that its testimony to the world of that they see in Tehran is forceful.”

“We are after justice, not revenge,” Timerman insisted. Regarding negotiations between western countries and Iran over nuclear weapons, “I told those countries that Argentina would not allow the AMIA case to be used to set a military attack on Iran, because we are after justice, not revenge.”

But I also told them that if they will negotiate, they mustn’t forget the AMIA case. However, none of those countries put the AMIA case in negotiations and that made us move forward with this accord.”