BUENOS AIRES – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero expressed their “serious concern” on Tuesday over the recent visit to Nicaragua by Iranian Argentina asks Moscow to arrest Iranian accused of attack”>Mohsen Rezai, who has an international arrest warrant for his alleged responsibility in the attack against a Jewish center in 1994 in Buenos Aires.
Both officials referred in this way to the presence of Rezai – Vice President of Economic Affairs of Iran – on January 11 at the inauguration ceremony of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, during the meeting they held in Washington, said the spokesman for the Department of US State, Ned Price in a statement.
The statement adds that the Iranian official is “the subject of an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated homicide and damages in connection with the bombing.” In the same meeting, Blinken and Cafiero analyzed forms of cooperation “to bring to justice” the suspects in the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), which caused 85 deaths.
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A red alert from Interpol weighs on Rezai since he is accused by the Argentine justice of being one of the intellectual authors of the attack. At the time, Rezai was serving as a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry recently condemned the presence of the Iranian official at that act in Managua and noted that he had sent “a non-verbal note of complaint” to the Nicaraguan Embassy in Buenos Aires. He also affirmed that the acts imputed to the Iranian official constitute a crime against humanity, so his presence in Managua, even “in his capacity as Vice President of Economic Affairs of Iran, does not exempt him from answering before the Argentine justice” .
The Foreign Ministry also recalled the “ties of friendship” that unite Argentina with Nicaragua and when referring to “the obligations that arise from international law.” He said he hopes to have “the full collaboration of the international community to ensure the appearance of the accused and the clarification of the attack,” for which no one has been detained.
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The Jewish community in Argentina and the Organization of American States also expressed their rejection of Rezai’s presence.
In that same act in which Ortega assumed power, the Argentine ambassador in Managua, Daniel Capitanich, was present, which generated criticism from opposition deputies, who anticipated that they will present a request for interpellation to Foreign Minister Cafiero so that he gives explanations “before the complicit presence” of an Argentine official in the act in which a person accused of the attack was present.
Diego Guelar, former Argentine ambassador to the United States, stated that Capitanich “should have asked Interpol for (Rezai’s) arrest.”
Ortega took office for a new five-year term, the fourth in a row, amid questions from different countries that consider that his government undermines democracy. There were no images of the Argentine ambassador interacting with the Iranian official during the investiture ceremony of the Nicaraguan leader.
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Iran denies its participation in the attack, for which the Argentine justice charged eight former Iranian diplomats and officials and a member of the Lebanese and pro-Iranian group Hezbollah. About five of them weigh red alerts from Interpol.
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