MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine arrest warrants for Iranian officials

An Argentine judge has issued arrest warrants for former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and eight other Iranian officials over the 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires of a Jewish institution.

Last month, Judge Canicoba Corral accused former authorities in Teheran of masterminding the attack on Buenos Aires' Jewish Centre AMIA in which 85 people died and hundreds injured. .

Iran has rejected the charge, describing it as a "Zionist plot" and a spokesman from the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires said the warrants "will be ignored". .

Iranian authorities were accused by Argentine prosecutors of directing Lebanese militia group Hezbollah to carry out the attack that flattened the seven floor building. Hezbollah has also denied its involvement in the attack. .

"This is the result of the "Iranphobia" disseminated around the world by United States and Israel", said the Iranian embassy spokesperson. "The US is still living the Cold War and they've changed Iran for the Soviet Union". .

Argentine prosecutors said the decision to attack AMIA was decided in 1993 by the highest authorities of Iran and Judge Canicoba Corral described the 1994 bombing as a "crime against humanity". .

The blast occurred July 18, 1994 and no one has ever been convicted but the President Kirchner administration has said it is determined to secure justice. Over the years, the case has been marked by rumors of cover-ups and accusations of incompetence, but little in the way of hard evidence. Minor figures have been named, including a policeman who sold the van used in the attack, but no-one has been convicted. .

Local Jewish groups have long said the bombing bore the hallmarks of Iranian-backed Islamic militants. .

An earlier bombing in 1992 of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, also remains unsolved. .

So far the Argentine government has made no comments on the Judge's decision. Iran/Argentina relations are at their lowest, but the Kirchner administration has been praised by United States and Israel for having insisted with the case.