Two suspects in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in
Buenos Aires are candidates in Iran’s presidential election.
Mohsen Rezai and Ali Akbar Velayati, who are believed to
have planned the 1994 attack, were among the eight candidates approved Tuesday
for the June 14 election by Iran’s Guardian Council to succeed Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian constitution bars Ahmadinejad from seeking
re-election.
Rezai is under an international arrest warrant, or red
notice, from the Interpol international police agency.
Argentina has accused the Iranian government of directing
the bombing, which killed 85 and wounded 300, and the Lebanon-based terror
group Hezbollah of carrying it out. No arrests have been made in the case.
Six Iranians have been on Interpol’s most wanted list since
2007 in connection with the bombing, including the current defense minister,
Gen. Ahmed Vahidi.
Meanwhile, the Argentinian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in
a statement that Argentina has received “no formal notification” about Iran’s
official approval of an agreement for the two countries to jointly probe the
AMIA attack.
Iran’s business commissioner to Buenos Aires, Ali Pakdaman,
had said a day earlier that Ahmadinejad officially approved the agreement to
create a Truth Commission investigating the bombing.
The statement issued by the office headed by Foreign
Minister Hector Timerman said that only when the formal notification is
received by the foreign ministries of Argentina and Iran will “the deal be put
into operation.”
Iran also is believed to be behind the 1992 car bombing that
destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and injuring 242.
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