14 November 2007
Iran has accused five Argentines with falsely implicating Iranians in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA centre in Buenos Aires. The action came a week after Interpol granted a request from Argentina to put the Iranians and a Lebanese man on its most-wanted list for the 1994 blast that killed 85 people and wounded 200. Iran has strongly denied that the Iranians were involved and has accused Interpol of bowing to US and Israeli pressure to issue the warrants.
Iran's state news agency IRNA said on Tuesday that Iran has started legal proceedings against five Argentines in the bombing. The agency quoted Iran's deputy public prosecutor Yadollah Alizadeh as accusing the Argentines of "acting against Iran's national security, bribing Iran's opponents outside the country to obtain false statements from them, and media propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Tehran called for the five to appear in an Iranian court to face the allegations but they dismissed the request. "This summons by Iran will have no effect, and is seen in the international community as something without sense that will only serve to confuse and delay," Jose Adaszko, vice president of the Argentine Jewish cultural centre, said.
The summons was at least the second attempt by Iran to get the group to face Tehran’s accusations. In August, Iranian television reported that the men were ordered to appear within days, a request the Argentine foreign ministry quickly rejected. The ministry said that it was difficult not to see the summons as a "political reprisal" to Argentine efforts to get hold of the Iranians allegedly involved in the community centre bombing.
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