MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nisman case leads to Timerman indeclinable resignation from Argentine Jewish organizations

Timerman, himself a Jew, criticized their “obstructionist actions” aimed at hindering the investigation into the 1994 AMIA terrorist attack.

Argentine foreign minister Héctor Timerman submitted on Tuesday his “indeclinable” resignation as an affiliate of AMIA, the Argentine Israel organization that is at the center of an ongoing controversy since 1994, when it suffered Argentina's worst terrorist attack with the loss of 85 lives and over 300 injured in downtown Buenos Aires.

 In a letter sent to the Jewish centre which contained tough words against the mutual and also against the DAIA Delegation of Argentine-Israeli Associations, Timerman, himself a Jew, criticized their “obstructionist actions” aimed at hindering the investigation into the 1994 AMIA terrorist attack.

In the letter, addressed to AMIA president Leonardo Jmelnitzky and sent to the Argentine media from his personal e-mail account, the minister explained his decision withdrawing DAIA from “the right to speak” on his behalf.

“The decision was motivated by the certainty that with their obstructionist actions both institutions continue hindering the investigation of the terrorist criminal attack occurred on 18 July 1994, while at the same time they are feeding, maybe unintentionally, campaigns by those who are willing to use such strategy for purposes which are contrary to the national interests,” he wrote.

The letter is addressed to present ”my indeclinable resignation as an affiliate“, and since ”I no long belong to your organization, withdraw the right to speak in my name”, pointed out Timerman.

The foreign minister, President Cristina Fernandez and other top officials were accused last January by deceased AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman as part of a plot to allegedly cover up Iran top officials involvement in the AMIA 1994 attack.

From the very beginning investigations in the nineties into the attack pointed to Hezbollah with the support from Iran.

Nisman has been dead for 100 days, and so far the Argentine Justice has been unable to determine whether he was killed, or committed suicide.

The special prosecutor's death which shocked Argentine public opinion occurred last January, four days after he formally announced his case against Cristina Fernandez and Timerman, and a day before he was scheduled to reveal details to a Congressional committee.

However Nisman's claim now in charge of another prosecutor has been rejected as 'lacking sufficient evidence' by a judge and an appeals courts and could end before the Supreme Court.

In 2013, Buenos Aires and Teheran signed a memorandum of understanding, which according to Cristina Fernandez would help pave the way to solve the AMIA case, since Teheran was willing to cooperate with the investigation even admitting questioning of Iranian officials by Argentine magistrates.

Even when the memorandum was approved by the Argentine Congress it was considered unconstitutional. Iran never even discussed the document since parliament threw it out.

Apparently the memorandum signed with Iran was the breaking point of close links between the Cristina Fernandez administration and prosecutor Nisman who was specifically named to the case over a decade ago by former president Nestor Kirchner, Cristina's husband.