Iran denies Argentina bombing allegations

An Iranian envoy says that Argentine prosecutors’ accusations linking former high-level Iranian officials to a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing are unfounded and an attempt to find a ”scapegoat” for the attack.

Mohsen Baharvand, Iran’s charge d’affaires in Argentina, said his government still vigorously condemns the Jewish centre bombing that claimed 85 lives and wounded 200 others, calling it a “horrible act”.

Two Argentine special prosecutors asked a federal judge on Wednesday to order the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others for the bombing of the seven-story centre, which was flattened by the blast.

Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman said the decision to attack the centre “was undertaken in 1993 by the highest authorities of the then-government of Iran”. He also alleged that the actual attack was entrusted to the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

Baharvand called those accusations unfounded, saying the prosecutors had no evidence.

“On behalf of my government, I reject and condemn these accusations because these are accusations (made) on a political basis. It’s not due process of law,” Baharvand said.

Iran’s government in the past has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack following repeated accusations by Jewish community leaders.

“There are many irregularities and continuing irregularities in this case,” Baharvand said. “I think they have been unable to identify the participants in this case and they are trying somehow in vain to accuse others for that.

“They are trying just to create a scapegoat to cover the shortcomings to finding the participants in this horrible act,” said Baharvand, adding “We have always condemned these acts. These are terrorist acts.”

In a brief statement, Israel’s foreign ministry said it “viewed positively” the Argentine prosecutors’ announcement.

“Israel trusts that the Argentine authorities will take the necessary measures … to assure those responsible for this attack are punished,” the Israeli statement said.

On Wednesday, the prosecutors urged the judge to seek domestic and international arrest orders for Rafsanjani, who was Iran’s president between 1989 and 1997 and is now the head of the Expediency Council, which mediates between parliament and the clerics who rule the country.

They also asked the judge to detain a former Iranian intelligence chief, a former foreign minister, two former commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, two former Iranian diplomats and a former Hezbollah security chief.

Federal Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral is allowed an indefinite amount of time to accept or reject the recommendations.

The two prosecutors head a special unit created after a troubled investigation into the case was halted in 2004.

The attack on the Jewish centre, a symbol of Argentina’s more than 200,000-strong Jewish population, was the second of two attacks targeting Jews in Argentina during the 1990s. A March 1992 blast destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people in a case that has also been blamed by local groups on Hezbollah.