MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Iran accuses Argentina of “interfering in internal affairs”

Argentina strongly protested the designation of Ahmad Vahidi as Defence Minister. Vahidi has been wanted since 2007 by Interpol for links to the AMIA terrorist attack in Buenos Aires which caused 85 d

Iran's government accused Argentina of “interfering in internal affairs,” referring to criticism against the designation of Ahmad Vahidi as Defence Minister. Vahidi has been wanted since 2007 by Interpol for supposed ties to the AMIA terrorist attack in Buenos Aires which caused 85 deaths and hundreds of injured.

The positions taken by Argentine authorities have the objective of interfering in the Islamic Republic's internal affairs, and we strongly condemn these illegal actions,“ said the spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry Hassan Ghashghavi.

Argentina's position is a result of ”pressures on the part of Zionist lobbyists,“ said Ghashghavi, who added that this situation is an ”insult towards the Argentine public's intelligence.“

”Since 1994, Argentina's justice system has not found one single piece of evidence against Iran's diplomats and militants. Everything presented up until now has not been proven, and that is why we recommend that Argentina identify those truly responsible for the terrorist act,“ said the spokesman.

Last Friday, Argentina harshly criticized the decision of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to place Vahidi as Defence Minister of his government.

”The nomination of Ahmad Vahidi to the post of Defence Minister of Iran is a challenge to Argentina's justice system and to the victims of the brutal terrorist attack against the AMIA“ according to Argentina's Foreign Affairs ministry release.

In addition, it was said that the decision ”has been received with serious concern and merits the highest condemnation by the Argentine government“. Jewish organizations also strongly protested the nomination. Argentina has the largest Jewish community in the Americas outside the United States.

“The decision adopted by the Iranian president, who systematically denies the Holocaust, means an aggression to the victims of the massacre, to their families, to the Argentine Jewish community and to the Argentine Republic and its judicial system, and it must receive the most categorical condemnation from the Argentine government and the community of democratic nations” reads a document released by DAIA Jewish association.

Vahidi, a former commander of the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guard known as the Quds Force, was one of 15 men and three women named to Cabinet posts by Ahmadinejad as he begins his second term in office.

Interpol placed Vahidi and four other Iranian officials on its most-wanted list in 2007 at the request of Argentine prosecutors, who say the men played a role in planning the July 1994 attack on the seven-story community centre in Buenos Aires.

Iran has never acknowledged the existence of the Quds Brigades, which is believed to be a covert operation branch of the Revolutionary Guards.

Late Friday Ali Akbar Javanfekr, press adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, dismissed the complaint, saying that he saw a “Zionist” hand in the outrage.

“How come didn't they bring it up in the past?” he asked. “Mr Vahidi was a deputy defence minister and this is very senior political position. Therefore it seems that this is a new trick being planned and is basically a Zionist plot”.

The 1994 bombing was the second attack against a Jewish target in Buenos Aires in less than three years. Two years earlier, in 1992 the Israeli embassy was also levelled in a bombing that killed 22 people and injured 200 others.