Argentina’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the detention of Mohsen Rezai, Iran’s Vice President, whom the country accuses of being involved in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
Prosecutor Sebastián Basso, who is in charge of investigating the terrorist attack on a building belonging to the Argentine Israel Mutual Association (AMIA), filed a motion on Monday asking to “activate the diplomatic mechanisms to comply with the arrest warrant for Mohsen Rezai.
The Iranian vice president is “on red alert issued by Interpol for his suspected involvement in the attack against AMIA and, according to various websites, has traveled to Qatar,” the document submitted by Mr. Basso.
At the request of the prosecution, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Argentine ambassador in Doha to ask the Qatari Foreign Ministry to “respect the current red alerts and arrest” the Iranian vice president.
Mr Rezai traveled to Doha for an exhibition of the achievements of Iranian companies ahead of the start of the World Cup in November. He will also oversee agreements between Iranian and Qatari officials.
Mohsen Rezai, wanted
After lengthy investigations by Argentina’s judiciary, former judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral issued the first arrest warrant for Mr. 85 people.
This January, Mr. Rezai attended the inauguration of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, which sparked an outcry from Argentina for not arresting him at the time.
The vice president’s son, Ahmad Rezai, defected to the United States in the 1990s and told the US administration that a 1992 suicide attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was orchestrated by Tehran and that he even joined his father on a trip in Lebanon. to supervise the training of the attackers.
After returning to Iran and dropping the charges against his father, Ahmad Rezai was found dead under suspicious circumstances in a Dubai hotel room in 2017.
Attacks against the Jewish community of Argentina
On March 17, 1992, a Ford truck packed with explosives crashed into the entrance of the Israeli embassy in downtown Buenos Aires, killing 22 people and injuring an estimated 242.
Two years later, on July 18, 1994, a white van packed with explosives also exploded at the entrance to the AMIA building, killing 85 and injuring more than 300.
At the time, investigators accused Hezbollah – a Lebanese political party and militant group backed by Iran and designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including the United States and the European Union – of carrying out the attacks.
Since the blasts, the Argentine state has sought the arrest of seven Iranians, some of them current state officials and some Lebanese, all accused of planning the attacks in Argentina.
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