MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Israel demands Argentina clarifies an alleged “trade for silence” deal with Iran

The report published in Buenos Aires daily could thwart Timerman’s visit to Israel

Israel may cancel a visit by Argentina's foreign minister after a report that the country told Iran it would stop investigating two bombings of Jewish targets in exchange for better trade relations.
Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is scheduled to visit Israel next week.

Timerman, who is Jewish, reportedly made the offer during a visit to Syria in January. Syrian President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem reportedly were the mediators and brought the offer to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The weekly Argentine newspaper Perfil broke the report on the offer over the weekend. According to the report, Argentina hopes the deal would lead to more trade with Iran, which is currently estimated at 1.2 billion US dollars a year.

Under the deal reported by Perfil, based on a classified Iranian document, Argentina would drop its investigations into the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, which killed 29 and injured 242, and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 injured. Iran is accused of being behind the attacks.

Israeli foreign ministry officials are waiting for a response from their Argentinean counterparts on the veracity of the report before deciding how to handle the visit, according to Israeli news reports.