Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said last Sunday that Tehran and Buenos Aires are working together to settle accusations made about the AMIA explosion of 1994, but at the same time contradicted his Argentine counterpart Hctor Timerman. He said that based on the agreement signed by Iran and the Argentine government, International Police (Interpol) must stop issuing a red notice for four Iranian officials.The statement made by the Iranian minister to official Iranian news agency IRNA, contradicts the one made by Timerman in Government House last Friday when he sustained that Interpol had confirmed that the accord signed between the two countries does not imply any type of change to their red alert list against Iran.
The Iranian official added that the Islamic Republic of Iran has condemned the terrorist attack on the Argentine Jewish centre in 1994 and is working with the Argentine government to resolve the issue in line with a memorandum of understanding signed by representatives of the two governments.
Minister Salehi, further elaborating on the Iranian Foreign Ministrys efforts to lead diplomatic relations to warmer interaction with other governments, expressed the hope that the new Iranian year will be a turning point for Irans foreign policy. The ill-wishers tried to imply that Iran has been isolated and will suffer a setback in diplomatic domain, he stated.
Last January 27, Salehi and Timerman had signed a memorandum of understanding in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with the intention of creating a truth commission to get to the bottom of the AMIA attack. Timerman had declared last month that the truth commissions would be carried out with the approval of both Argentina and Iran, and that it did not entail the removal of the accused from Interpols list.
Last Saturday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said that Iran and Argentinas initiative to create a fact-finding commission to examine the AMIA bombing has blocked the United States and Israel meddling in Irans good relations with Latin American countries. He added that Israel had been trying to link the AMIA tragedy to Iran but Tehrans agreement with Buenos Aires was preventing the Jewish state from achieving its goal.
The memorandum of understanding was passed as a treaty by the Argentine Congress last month, despite criticism from the local Jewish community.
ByBuenos Aires Herald
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