MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina hosts regional summit on Hezbollah, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the AMIA bombing

The forecast for Argentina's total production was the second-highest in 19 years at 56 million mt, up 48% year on year due to a better than expected yield

The United States and Argentina convened this week a two-day regional summit in Buenos Aires to address the Hezbollah threat in the Western Hemisphere. The summit on Tuesday and Wednesday was held a month ahead of the 25th anniversary of the terrorist bombing of the AMIA Jewish centre in the Argentine capital.

The attack was carried out by a Hezbollah suicide bomber and orchestrated by Iran, the late Argentinian investigator Alberto Nisman established.

Law enforcement, prosecutors and financial practitioners attended the workshop, a State Department release said. They came from the two convening countries as well as Chile, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay and Peru.

“The workshop focused on Hezbollah’s modus operandi globally and its terrorist and criminal infrastructure and activities in the Americas,” the release said.

“Participants discussed various techniques to constrain and counter the group’s illicit activities, including the financial and law enforcement tools available to identify, investigate, and prosecute Hezbollah’s global support and facilitation networks.”

The summit was timed as part of the events that Argentina’s government is planning to mark the anniversary of the blast on July 18, 1994, which killed 85 and injured more than 300.

On July 18, Argentina’s embassies in 20 cities around the world will mark the anniversary in a joint initiative with the World Jewish Congress. The next day, Argentina will host a Western Hemisphere Ministerial, where government ministers meet and discuss policy, in commemoration of the attack.