Iran Calls Netanyahu's Statements on Argentina Explosions 'Baseless'

Bahram Qasemi, the spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, described the recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Iran's involvement in the bombings in Argentina three decades ago as 'absurd and baseless.' According to a report on Thursday, September 14, by Fars News Agency, Qasemi rejected Iran's involvement in the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992. Netanyahu stated during a memorial ceremony for the victims of the AMIA case in Argentina that Iran was the mastermind behind that explosion. He labeled the Islamic Republic as a 'systematic aggressor' and 'the main supporter of terrorism in the world.' In response, Qasemi said that the Islamic Republic, while condemning the past explosions in Buenos Aires, rejects the accusations against Iranian nationals in this regard. ISNA News Agency also published Qasemi's statements, noting that he considers Netanyahu's remarks as 'part of a conspiracy' by Israel against Iran. Qasemi also implicated the 'power mafia in Argentina that seeks to free the real perpetrators of this act from punishment' in making such statements. In the 1992 explosion at the Israeli embassy, 29 people, including several Israeli diplomats, were killed. Two years later, another explosion at the Jewish community center known as 'AMIA' left 85 dead and over 200 injured. Argentina, in a lengthy investigation into that explosion, announced that the bombing plot originated in Iran and was executed with the cooperation of Iranian institutions, handed over to Hezbollah. Interpol, the international police, later issued arrest warrants for several Iranian officials, including Imad Mughniyeh, the then senior operational commander of Hezbollah, for their involvement in that bombing. The name of Ali Fallahian, the then Minister of Intelligence, remains among the Iranians wanted by Interpol. However, Fallahian recently denied his and the former Ministry of Intelligence's involvement in this incident in an interview with Ali Dehbaashi in Iran. In 1995, the Argentine government again requested the extradition of Iran's former foreign minister and current advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei in connection with the 1994 bombing at the Buenos Aires Jewish community center. According to Reuters, Ali Akbar Velayati, whose name is on Interpol's list, was in Iraq at the time, prompting Argentina to request Baghdad to act on his extradition. The U.S. State Department also referenced 'Iran's role' in that deadly attack in a statement on the anniversary of the bombing at the Argentine Jewish community center, while simultaneously calling for 'transparency' regarding the death of Alberto Nisman, the judge in the investigation. In January 2015, about twenty-one years after the AMIA bombing, the bullet-ridden body of Judge Nisman was found in his home, just hours before he was scheduled to present his final report on the bombing to the Argentine Congress. Judge Nisman had accused several senior Argentine officials, including former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of 'covering up the facts.'