MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine-Iran dialogue is ‘over’, says Jewish community rejecting Teheran’s denial of any involvement

Israel insists that President Ahmadinejad and Iranians are “not reliable”

The president of the Argentine Jewish Community centre, AMIA, Guillermo Borger said that if Iran insists in rejecting any links with the 1994 attack in which 85 people were killed and 300 injured, the current dialogue between Argentina and Teheran on the issue “is over”.

“Sitting at a dialogue table in which we insist we don’t trust at all the presence of Iran and saying that citizens from Iran were not involved in the Buenos Aires attack, is saying that the dialogue table is over”, insisted Borger on Tuesday according to the Jewish Agency News, AJN.

Borger was replying to statements from Teheran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast who rejected point blank all the accusations against Iran citizens of involvement in the 1994 attack, the deadliest terrorist action in Argentine soil.

The Teheran official said that the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “prepared to make a detailed review of who were the perpetrators” of the terrorist attack, which “Iran as a victim of international terrorism condemns in all its forms”.

Borger said Iran was not reliable and recalled that under ex President Nestor Kirchner a special prosecution unit was created to address the case. “Since the special unit headed by prosecutor Alberto Nisman begun working a huge amount of evidence was collected strictly ratifying the involvement of several Iranian citizens and even the ‘modus operandi’, very similar to those implemented in other attacks in Europe, and this is why we don’t believe Iran is reliable or can be trusted”.

“The Iranian government had found a very easy way out of the issue, which is totally out of place when you are talking of a dialogue table and negotiations”, added the Argentine Jewish community leader. “The only possible way out is for those who have been accused turn up before Argentine Justice to give their testimonies”.

Meanwhile according to the Israel media a top diplomatic delegation was in Buenos Aires to talk with their Argentine counterparts about the dialogue in Geneva and insist with the responsibility of Teheran in the AMIA attack.

Days before the dialogue in Geneva, Itzhak Shoham, head of the Latinamerica desk at the Israel Foreign ministry and his deputy in intelligence issues Reuven Azar met in Buenos Aires with the Argentine Under Secretary for Latinamerican affairs and the head of the Middle East desk.

“We made it clear to the Argentine that we remain alert on the issue and that we will not allow the AMIA attack to be swept under the carpet”, an Israeli source is quoted adding that “we called on the Argentines to be mistrustful of Teheran’s intentions in the dialogue table and that they must be firm in demanding the extradition of the suspects and compensation for the families of the victims”.

“Argentina has stated in a release that the dialogue has the only purpose of talking about the AMIA attack. We have no reason to believe the contrary, but we all know how the Iranians are”, underlined Shoham.

However we must remind Argentina that “they have to be careful with any dialogue that enables Iran to be a normal attendant of such discussions, when they are not. They are playing for time and to improve their international standing”.