MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Iran/Argentina memorandum involved in a further controversy

Timerman visited Interpol headquarters and met with Secretary General Richard K Noble in Lyon

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman met on Thursday with Interpol top officials and said he received ‘very strong support’ for the memorandum signed with Iran, which includes the questioning of those allegedly involved in the 1994 attack on the Jewish organization AMIA in Buenos Aires that killed 85 and left dozens injured.

The announcement follows the release by the Argentine prosecutor of the case, Alberto Nisman of a report openly describing Teheran as a ‘terrorist state’ and the Iranian suspects of the attack as “very dangerous terrorists”.

“I received a strong backing for the memorandum signed with Iran and approved by the Argentine Congress” said Timerman following a meeting with Interpol Secretary General Richard K Noble in Lyon.

Timerman insisted that “the memorandum is the only way to resolve the AMIA case” and admitted Argentina was waiting for the official communication from Teheran regarding the ratification of the document agreed.

Interpol confirmed that the warrants against the Iranians accused of the attack stand, and that the position of the organization following the January memorandum remains unchanged.

Argentina through Interpol has a pending warrant request against eight Iranian top officials and a Lebanese citizen, all of them allegedly involved at the time in the attack against the Jewish organization headquarters in Buenos Aires.

However Interpol is willing to cooperate with both sides and Noble said he was satisfied with Iran’s cooperation in several fields and is betting strongly on the good will of Teheran in the case.

However Argentine prosecutor Nisman who was the main investigator in the AMIA case, accuses Iran of ‘infiltrating’ Latinamerica to plan similar attacks and describes the Iranian suspects as “very dangerous terrorists”.

“These are highly dangerous terrorists, in any other part of the world they would be jailed but in Iran they are running as presidential candidates”, said Nisman.

He added he is in possession of documents signed by Teheran top officials which show how the whole operation was planned from Iran. “I’m convinced they are irrefutable evidence. Any prosecutor in my place would arrive to the same conclusions”.

Nisman also called on Interpol to do their best in detaining the accused” so they can be questioned and insisted that “Iran is a state that protects terrorists”.

He anticipated he would not keep quiet, and promised to continue with the AMIA cause. “I only have to look at the eyes of the relatives”.

Nisman also complained about the lack of respect towards the magistrate that only heard about the memorandum signed with Iran and ratified by the Argentine congress, through the media.

“There is an operational pattern with works throughout Latinamerica and are planned by Iran. We had certain things happen in Argentina and then comes the attack on AMIA”, said Nisman who recalled a similar situation in Guyana.

Nisman in a 507 pages report released on Wednesday argues that it has been proved that since the early eighties, Teheran planned and completed terrorist attacks such as the AMIA. He added that evidence points to the former Iranian cultural attaché Mohsen Rabbani, as head of the whole operation. Rabbani is believed to be hiding in Iran.

In the long report Nisman also refers to an alleged frustrated plan to blow up the fuel depots at the John F Kennedy airport in New York, which was thwarted by the FBI, and involved Iranian agents in the US and Guyana.

Finally “there are strong and concordant indications that AMIA and the Kennedy airport were part of an overall infiltration plan with intelligence cells working and collecting data in countries such as Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname” underlined Nisman.