Argentina Requests International Arrest of Iran’s Interior Minister for AMIA Attack 30 Years Ago

In the last few hours, Argentina requested the international arrest of Iran’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, accused of being one of those responsible for the attack. against the Jewish AMIA that left 86 dead in Buenos Aires 30 years ago.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Argentina wants the arrest of those responsible for the attack on the AMIA (Argentine Israeli Mutual Association) in 1994, which resulted in the death of 86 people, and they continue in their positions of power without complete consent. “

“One of them is Ahmad Vahidi, who is wanted by the Argentine Justice as one of those responsible for the attack against the AMIA,” continued the text, also signed by the Argentine Ministry of Security.

Vahidi is Iran’s Minister of Interior and is part of a government delegation currently in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

In this sense, the Central Office of Interpol issued a red notice for the arrest of Vahidi at the request of Argentina, which in turn asked the governments of Pakistan and Sri Lanka to proceed with the arrest, according to the report

On April 12, the Argentine justice system concluded that the attacks on the Israeli embassy in 1992, as well as the AMIA attack two years later, were ordered by Iran, in a ruling that was considered “historic” by the Jewish community.

The Federal Criminal Court of Cassation II then identified the Shiite movement Hezbollah as the perpetrator, declared Iran a “terrorist state” and described the attack on the AMIA as a “crime against humanity”.

In two separate rulings published that day, the judges Carlos Mahiques, Diego Barroetaveña and Ángela Ledesma confirmed the need to prosecute the Lebanese and Iranian defendants “in absentia”, who obtained the release of former Argentinian mechanic Carlos Telleldín for his involvement and reduced sentences for other defendants covering the investigation.

It should be noted that the attack on the AMIA was the second against the Argentine Jewish community, the largest in Latin America, after the one carried out in 1992 against the Israeli embassy, which left 29 dead.

In 2006, Argentine courts requested the extradition of eight Iranians, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Iran’s former cultural liaison in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Rabbani, and Vahidi , who served as defense minister under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After holding this position in Defense, Lieutenant General Vahidi was appointed Minister of the Interior in 2021. But at the time of the Buenos Aires attack, the officer was the commander of the Quds Force, the covert operations unit of the Guard Corps.

In 2013, theThen-Argentine President Cristina Kirchner signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran agreeing to create a “truth commission” to investigate the attack. In addition, Argentine prosecutors were allowed to interrogate those accused of carrying out the bombing of the AMIA outside Argentina.