Argentina, Iran reach deal on 1994 terrorist attack probe

Argentinean Prez Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said that Argentina and Iran are to set up a truth commission to investigate the 1994 attack.

Buenos Aires: Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said on Sunday that Argentina and Iran have agreed to set up an independent truth commission to investigate the 1994 terrorist attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi signed an accord on the issue on the sidelines of the African Union Summit in Ethiopia on Sunday, Fernandez said in her official Twitter and Facebook messages.

Fernandez called the accord "historic" and noted that the five-member commission will be made of "internationally renowned legal experts" from other countries. The president of the commission will be a top international jurist "with high moral standards and legal prestige," Fernandez added. She also said the accord may allow the Argentinean authorities to question those wanted by Interpol. On July 18, 1994, a bomb leveled a seven-story building housing the Israeli-Argentinean Mutual Aid Association (AMIA), killing 85 people and injuring more than 700 others. In 2006, Argentinean prosecutors accused Iran of masterminding the attack, while Iran denied any involvement. As an "agreement signed with a foreign power," the document has to be approved by Argentina`s Parliament before it goes into effect, and a copy of it will be sent to Interpol, which issued arrest warrants in 2006 for several Iranian citizens, including former Defense Minister Ahmah Vahidi and Ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour then. Xinhua-ANI