IRAN REACTS TO ARGENTINE CHARGES

 

THE ERAN 9 Mar. (IPS)     The Islamic Republic of Iran reacted to Argentine’s issuing an international arrest warrant against four of its officials, charged of involvement in the 1994 explosion of a Jewish centre in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200, saying that Tehran would do “all it can to restore the prestige of Iranian diplomats by taking appropriate action through respective (international) body”.

 

         Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Ahani on Sunday summoned Argentine Charge d'Affaires in Tehran, Ernesto Carlos Alvarez, to voice protest in “strongest term” at the arrest warrant, issued Saturday by Federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano in Buenos Aires against three Iranian diplomats and the former Intelligence Minister, Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian.

Other accused are the former cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires, Hojjatoleslam Moshen Rabbani; Ali Akbar Parvaresh, a former official and Foreign Ministry and diplomatic post official Barat Ali Balesh Abadi, originally a Lebanese.

 

Mr. Fallahian, who is now both a member of the Experts Assembly and a special adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic, is already under another international warrant issued in 1997 by the German authorities for his involvement in the assassination of four leading Iranian Kurds in a restaurant in Berlin in September 1992.

 

Iran, which is a major importer of wheat from Argentina, has repeatedly denied any involvement in the explosions and has instead accused the Israeli and American governments to be behind the allegations in order to give an ugly visage to the Islamic Republic.

 

         In the meeting with Mr. Alvarez, Ahani sought explanation from Argentine diplomat for what he termed as the “anti-Iran practice” that took place in his country, the official news agency IRNA said.    

                             

“Ahani said that the diplomats listed by the judge had visited Argentina several months before the bomb blast and held talks with Buenos Aires government officials during their stay”, IRNA quoted the Iranian official, without emphasising.

 

"Unfortunately, the court proceedings about the bombing affair has got out of the judicial path and fallen into the political one", Ahani told the Argentine Charge, telling him that Iran would take “all necessary measures” to save the prestige of its diplomats.

 

It is interesting that the agency did not name the accused, but listed Mr. Fallahian as a “diplomat”, while he was in charge of the Iranian notorious Intelligence Ministry under the presidency of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, during which tenure hundreds of Iranian dissidents had been murdered both inside and outside the country.

                                                                 

         Ahani told Mr. Alvarez that Argentine judicial officials didn't give positive response to Iran's offer to help clarify the ambiguity over the case shortly after they raised Israeli-inspired allegation against Iran.  

 

         This was a clear reason that the proceedings about the case geared for political track.                                                     

 

"The government of Iran and armed units of the pro-Iranian armed group Hezbollah were behind the horror of July 18, 1994, that at 9:53 in the morning killed 85 people in Once, in downtown Buenos Aires", which injured another 200, the report leaked to the dailies “Clarin” and “Pagina/12” charged, noting Galeano was to receive the report.

 

Argentina has one of the largest Jewish communities in the Americas, estimated at around 300,000.

 

                  Alvarez said that the arrest warrant against the diplomats doesn't mean that they are responsible for, but it has been a step in the proceedings to complete the investigation.             

     

The pro-conservative “Tehran Times”, taking cue from the office of the leadership, said Sunday that if the case of Iranian involvement in the massacre, the worst in Argentine’s history, is being brought is because of recent events in the region, particularly in occupied Palestine.   

        

"Zionist attacks and atrocities against the Palestinians have intensified recently and Zionist leaders are bent to divert world public opinion from the Palestinian plight", the daily said, adding that the judge's edict "is the result of pressures and interference of Zionist circles and the U.S. in order to win     

Iran's support for their Middle East and Iraq policies". ENDS IRAN ARGENTINE EXPLOSION 9303