Argentina Sought to Conceal Iran's Role in AMIA Bombing in Exchange for Oil

A judicial report in Argentina claims that senior officials in the country intended to cover up the role of Iranian officials in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, known as AMIA, in exchange for receiving oil from Iran. This report is essentially the text of a legal brief prepared by Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor, based on wiretaps of conversations between officials of Argentina and Iranians. Nisman’s body was found last Sunday, a day before he was set to testify against government officials in Congress. The New York Times, in its Thursday issue, referenced sections of this 289-page report, stating that Argentina and Iran had reached an agreement whereby Argentina would export meat to Iran and receive oil in return, while also concealing the role of Iranian officials in the AMIA bombing. According to the report, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman supported this agreement, but it was never implemented as Argentine officials failed to convince Interpol to remove the names of Iranian officials from its wanted list. The Argentine government has denied this report, accusing Alberto Nisman of being part of a conspiracy against them. Official sources in the government claimed that the former prosecutor was hired by a former intelligence official named Antonio Stiuso, who was dismissed by the president last December. Aníbal Fernández, an assistant to the Argentine president, described the former prosecutor's report as 'absolutely invalid.' Meanwhile, Nisman’s death has turned into a political crisis in Argentina, leading to multiple protests in recent days demanding clarity regarding the suspicious circumstances of the former prosecutor's death. In the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires, 85 people were killed. The Argentine prosecutor's office has accused several senior officials of the Islamic Republic of issuing orders for the execution of this operation and supporting it, with Hezbollah being implicated in its execution. Among the Iranian officials for whom Interpol has issued arrest warrants in connection with this case are Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the president, Ali Fallahian, the intelligence minister, Ali Akbar Velayati, the foreign minister, and Mohsen Rezai, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards. Tehran has consistently denied its involvement in the bombing and has attributed the accusations against it to an Israeli conspiracy.