MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Iranian officers' interviews, allegedly linked to AMIA bombing, attract world media attention

“Khamenei’s Adviser Dismisses Iran Role in Argentina Bombing,” ran an AP story that was published in numerous global outlets, including New York Times

The interviews with former Iranian officials accused of the 1994 AMIA bombing of a Jewish organization in downtown Buenos Aires aired this week by Argentine news channel C5N were covered by a number of international media outlets.

 “Khamenei’s Adviser Dismisses Iran Role in Argentina Bombing,” ran an Associated Press story that was published in numerous global outlets, including the New York Times website.

“Ali Akbar Velayati, who was foreign minister of Iran at the time of the 1994 bombing... said in an interview with Argentina’s C5N TV channel broadcast late Monday that he is innocent of the accusation that he masterminded the attack, as is his country,” claimed the story.

British daily The Guardian on Wednesday published its own story, titled “Iran denies involvement in 1994 Argentine Jewish centre bombing.”

India’s The Siasat Daily and the Haaretz Israeli newspaper also ran stories covering C5N’s exclusive interview.

On the 18 July 1994 attack, 85 people were killed, 300 injured, the AMIA building flattened and despite the time gone by, the case remains an unsolved mystery. A mystery which was only made thicker when AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his Buenos Aires apartment the night before going to Congress to explain why he accused Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and other top officials of covering up Iran's role in the worst terrorist attack in Argentine soil.

In Argentina the leader of 18J Association, an organization bringing together some of the relatives of the AMIA victims, questioned the statements made by Ali Akbar Velayati on the Monday interview the former Iranian foreign minister granted to the C5N news channel.

“I want to see him facing Justice here, in Iran or wherever,” Burstein was quoted as saying by Minutouno.com.

“The interview was very interesting and very important, allowing many who did not know (him), at least to learn about the personality or the position of two persons which I found completely different; intolerance on one side, and the search of dialogue on the other,” Burstein said but stressed he needed no TV interview.

“What I need is justice,” he stated as Argentines ready to mark the 21st anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires City that also claimed the life of Rita Worona, his ex wife and mother of his two children.

Still, the 18J leader considered yesterday’s TV report allowed “many people, the citizenship in general” to “listen” to Velayati’s comments.

The other part of the report had Mohsen Rabbani, the former Iranian cultural attaché in Argentina, another suspect in the AMIA trial that, almost 21 years after the attack, has given no answer to families’ justice claims.