Prosecutors in Argentina have asked a judge to order the arrest of a former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and other members of his former cabinet in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center. At a news conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, prosecutors said that the decision to call for the arrest of Rafsanjani was made because the attack on the AMIA center, carried out by Hezbollah, was made with the knowledge of top officials in the Iranian regime. Iran has denied any involvement in the bombing which killed 85 people and wounded an estimated 300.
The World Jewish Congress has called on the international community to assist the Argentine government in the arrest of the former Iranian president and members of his government directly implicated in the prosecutor's report, which "makes clear yet again that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and shows for all the world the threat we now face," the president of the World Jewish Congress, Edgar M. Bronfman, said, adding: The entire international community has a moral responsibility to ensure that Iran is held accountable for its terrorist actions. It is time for the United Nations to take a strong stance against a sovereign state that violates the UN charter by calling for the destruction of other nations and employing terrorist activity to murder civilians."
The 800-page report of the Argentine state prosecutor also details the active roles played by officials of the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires in the attacks. Rafsanjani served as president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. He lost a bid for a third term against president to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. In 2001, Rafsanjani made headlines for saying that if the world of Islam obtained nuclear weapons Israel would be destroyed.
