Argentina has asked Russia to arrest former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati for extradition in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Velayati is in Russia as a special advisor to President Hassan Rouhani and will travel to China on Friday, so the same request has also been made to Chinese authorities, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Argentina is awaiting a response from Russia to the request, which was made "within the framework of the extradition treaty between the two countries," the statement said.

Velayati was foreign minister when a bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) on July 18, 1994 leaving 85 dead and 300 people wounded.

He is charged with "committing the crime of homicide, classified as doubly aggravated for having been committed with racial or religious hatred and a suitable method to cause widespread danger," according to the judge responsible for the case.

Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah group is accused of the carrying out the bombing of the Jewish center and an attack on Israel's embassy in Buenos Aires two years earlier at Iran's demand. </s> BUENOS AIRES, July 13 — Argentina has asked Russia to arrest former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati for extradition in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

Velayati is in Russia as a special advisor to President Hassan Rouhani and will travel to China today, so the same request has also been made to Chinese authorities, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Argentina is awaiting a response from Russia to the request, which was made “within the framework of the extradition treaty between the two countries,” the statement said.

Velayati was foreign minister when a bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) on July 18, 1994 leaving 85 dead and 300 people wounded.

He is charged with “committing the crime of homicide, classified as doubly aggravated for having been committed with racial or religious hatred and a suitable method to cause widespread danger,” according to the judge responsible for the case.

Lebanon’s Shiah Hezbollah group is accused of the carrying out the bombing of the Jewish center and an attack on Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires two years earlier at Iran’s demand. — AFP </s> Although no one has been brought to justice for the AMIA attack in the quarter century since it took place, Argentine prosecutors have accused the Iranian government of directing it and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah of carrying it out. In January 2015, Alberto Nisman, the Argentine special prosecutor investigating the bombing, was found dead hours before he was to meet with Argentine legislators to discuss accusation that then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and then-Foreign Minister Hector Timerman covered up for former Iranian officials accused of being involved in the attack. </s> BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — An Argentine federal judge investigating the 1994 Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish center bombing has asked Russian officials to arrest a high-level Iranian adviser to the country’s supreme leader in connection with the attack.

Alí Akbar Velayati was scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow. Velayati, who was Iran’s foreign minister at the time of the terrorist attack and has been implicated in ordering the bombing, is now an adviser on international affairs to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Velayati is among special envoys that Iran is sending to various countries in response to the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from the 2015 nuclear deal.

“After Mr. Trump’s strategic mistake in unilaterally withdrawing, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to send special envoys to different countries conveying the message of high officials of Iran containing our stances, positions, and approaches towards this arrogant and illegal move of the U.S.,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said in describing the Wednesday visit of Velayati to Moscow.

Following news reports of the visit, Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral requested the arrest of Velayati. There has been an international arrest warrant against Velayati and seven other Iranian officials since 2006. The AMIA bombing killed 85 and injured hundreds.

Iran also is believed to be behind the 1992 car bombing that destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and injuring 242.

In 2016, ahead of another Velayati trip, Argentina made requests for his arrest to Singapore and Malaysia but was not successful.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also was expected to meet with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday. </s> Argentina's Foreign Ministry says it has asked Russia to arrest and extradite former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, citing his alleged role in a 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Velayati, who is now a top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was visiting Moscow on July 12 for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, but planned to travel to China on July 13.

Argentina's ministry said in a statement that it had made the same extradition request to China and was awaiting Russia's response to its request, which it said was made "within the framework of the extradition treaty between the two countries."

Velayati was foreign minister when a bomb destroyed the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association on July 18, 1994, leaving 85 people dead and 300 wounded. It was the biggest terrorist attack in Argentina's history.

Argentine prosecutors have described Velayati as one of the "ideological masterminds behind the attack," which targeted Argentina's Jewish population of 300,000.

Velayati is charged in Argentina with "committing the crime of homicide, classified as doubly aggravated for having been committed with racial or religious hatred and a suitable method to cause widespread danger," according to the judge responsible for the case.

Lebanon's Shi'ite Hizballah militant group is accused of carrying out the bombing of the Jewish center as well as an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires two years earlier, which killed 29 people, both allegedly at Tehran's behest.

Iran and Velayati have denied any involvement in the attacks.

Velayati is one of five top Iranian officials who Argentine investigators say ordered the attacks, along with former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is now deceased, and former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander Mohsen Rezaie.

Argentina's failure to bring any of the accused to justice in over two decades led to a longrunning scandal involving former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who negotiated a deal with Iran in 2013 that prosecutors say enabled the accused Iranians to avoid prosecution.

Fernandez and several of her aides were indicted on treason charges in December in connection with the 2013 deal, which prosecutors allege provided Iran with legal cover to escape prosecution in exchange for a normalization of relations and a grain-for-oil deal with Buenos Aires.

The agreement created a joint commission to investigate the Jewish center bombing that critics said was really a means to absolve Iran.

Fernandez has denied the charges, arguing that she made the deal because Iran and Argentina had no extradition agreement, and Argentina does not carry out trials in absentia, leaving authorities with no other way to respond to the bombings.

With reporting by AFP and Interfax </s> BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — An Argentine federal judge investigating the 1994 Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish center bombing has asked Russian officials to arrest a high-level Iranian adviser to the country’s supreme leader in connection with the attack.

Ali Akbar Velayati was scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow. Velayati, who was Iran’s foreign minister at the time of the terrorist attack and has been implicated in ordering the bombing, is now an adviser on international affairs to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Velayati is among special envoys that Iran is sending to various countries in response to the US withdrawal earlier this year from the 2015 nuclear deal.

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“After Mr. Trump’s strategic mistake in unilaterally withdrawing, the Islamic Republic of Iran decided to send special envoys to different countries conveying the message of high officials of Iran containing our stances, positions, and approaches towards this arrogant and illegal move of the US,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said in describing the Wednesday visit of Velayati to Moscow.

Following news reports of the visit, Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral requested the arrest of Velayati. There has been an international arrest warrant against Velayati and seven other Iranian officials since 2006. The AMIA bombing killed 85 and injured hundreds.

Iran also is believed to be behind the 1992 car bombing that destroyed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 and injuring 242.

In 2016, ahead of another Velayati trip, Argentina made requests for his arrest to Singapore and Malaysia but was not successful.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also met with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday when he discussed Israel’s demands for a withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria, where they are helping the regime battle rebels in a civil war.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report. </s> This has been disputed by Iran and by independent experts who say negotiations over the contract were still ongoing at the time of the bombing and it did not make sense for Tehran to bomb a target in Argentina.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is visiting Argentina this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing at the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) centre in Buenos Aires on 18 July 1994. The attack killed 85 members of Argentina's Jewish community, the sixth largest in the world.The decision to outlaw Hezbollah in Argentina - based on a request from the US and Israel - comes amid rising tensions between the US, the UK and Iran after a series of accusations and counter-accusations, which started with the US alleging Iran had bombed of oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in May, which Tehran vehemently denied.The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is heading to Argentina for meetings with President Macri and after the commemoration ceremony he will attend theAt the Santiago ceremony Adrián Werthein, President of the Latin American Jewish Congress, said:Several of those accused of involvement in the AMIA bombing remain influential in Iran - Ali Fallahijan served on Iran's influential Assembly of Experts until 2016, Mohsen Rezai, is a senior adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and Ahmad Vahidi is president of Iran's Supreme National Defence University.At 9.53am on 18 July 1994 a Renault Trafic van packed with 275 kilograms of explosives was driven into the front of the AMIA building in the centre of Buenos Aires, killing 85 people including the van's driver, who has never been conclusively identified.Eight days after the bombing, a car bomb went off outside the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14 people.Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and the FBI both claim the Buenos Aires van driver was Ibrahim Hussein Berro, 21, a Hezbollah operative from Beirut​[Tweet: "Macri declares Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation 25 years after The AMIA bombing"]The Argentinian judge in charge of the investigation, Juan Jose Galeano discovered the Renault Trafic van which contained the bomb had been sold by Carlos Telleldin, a dealer in stolen auto parts.But Judge Galeano was supposedly encouraged to investigate the "local connection" -Telleldin had reportedly received a phone call a few days before the bombing from Syrian-born Alberto Kanoore Edul, whose parents were friend of President Menem, who was also of Syrian origin.It was claimed Edul had the phone number of Moshen Rabbani, a cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires, in his contacts book.while Rabbani returned to Iran after the bombing.Syria and Iran have been allies for many years - ever since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 when Syria's then President Hafez Assad saw in Iran a natural ally against Israel as well as Iraq.Former President Menem, now 88, was cleared of meddling in the investigation.The AMIA bombing was not out of the blue.In March 1992 a car bomb had gone off outside the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people.In 2003 Argentina requested Interpol served red notices on 12 Iranians and the agency agreed but the notices were cancelled in 2005 because of alleged misconduct by the judge investigating the bombing.against Ali Fallahijan, Mohsen Rabbani, Ahmad Reza Asghari, Ahmad Vahidi, Mohsen Rezai and Imad Moughnieh, but he was killed in a car bombing in Damascus in 2008.In 2013 Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran, which would create a "truth commission" to get to the bottom of the AMIA bombing.An Argentinian report into the 1994 bombing, compiled by prosecutor Alberto Nisman in 2006, stated:Nisman claimed Iran had targeted the Jewish community in Argentina because it was angry Buenos Aires had decided to suspend a nuclear technology transfer contract.The debate about whether it was murder or suicide continues in Argentina to this day.[Tweet: "Carlos Telleldin, key man in the AMIA bombing, defends a family killed for an inheritance."] ​But Pablo Duggan, author of Quien Mato a Nisman? (Who Killed Nisman?), said his research has undermined the claims of Iranian involvement.Mr Duggan told Sputnik in March this year:​[Tweet: "Today begins the trial of Carlos Telleldi for the attack on the AMIA. Active Memory is part of a unified file with other family groups. The trial can be followed online here."]Mr Duggan said:Whatever the truth of the matter, nobody has been brought to justice for either the 1992 or the 1994 bombings and Iran still stands innocent until proven guilty. </s> Argentina is moving ahead with legislation that could enable the prosecution in absentia of suspects in the 1994 AMIA Jewish community center bombing, and is determined to keep seeking justice for the 85 fatalities in the attack, Israeli and Argentinian ambassadors said Wednesday night.

At an event marking the 25th anniversary of the July 18, 1994 bombing, the worst act of terrorism on Argentinian soil, Ilan Sztulman, who has just returned from a three-year term as Israel’s ambassador in Buenos Aires, noted approvingly that Argentinian lawmakers are now considering legislation to enable the trial in absentia of suspects in the bombing.

Sztulman was referring to a decision Tuesday by the Criminal Legislation Committee of Argentina’s Lower House to advance legislation providing for such trials to the house floor for further debate — a move backed by the ruling PRO party.

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At the same event, organized by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) together with the Museum of the Jewish People (Beit Hatfutsot) in Tel Aviv, Argentina’s Ambassador to Israel Mariano Caucino reiterated his government’s determination to see justice in the case. He said that the failure to do so thus far was “partly our fault” and partly a consequence of the fact that suspects in the attack are from a country — Iran — that will not make them available for prosecution.

Caucino said the 1994 bombing, and the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires two years earlier that killed 29 people, had marked “the end of innocence” for Argentina, which had hitherto regarded itself as far removed from the world’s conflicts.

The event, which was attended by relatives of some of the victims and several other ambassadors, included recollections from Rabbi Daniel Szlaifsztein, who was in the area of the blast on the day. Szlaifsztein led the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer for the victims.

In a panel discussion hosted by The Times of Israel’s editor David Horovitz, both ambassadors highlighted the strong ties between Argentina and Israel, and the shared determination to combat terrorism and battle anti-Semitism. Sztulman said that all appropriate tools needed to be used in the battle against terror, and lamented that Iran is still allowed to maintain an embassy in Buenos Aires, but noted that at least it was not headed by an ambassador-level diplomat, but rather by a charge d’affaires.

The late Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman established that leading Iranian officials orchestrated the bombing of the multi-story AMIA building, which was carried out by a Hezbollah suicide bomber. Presented with Nisman’s evidence, the Interpol international police agency has issued at least nine “red notice” arrest warrants for Iranian and Hezbollah officials wanted in connection with the blast.

Horovitz, who recalled that he reported from Buenos Aires for The Jerusalem Report in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, and who later interviewed Nisman, noted that the prosecutor had defied death threats from Iran and “swore that he would not cease his work on the case until the perpetrators and orchestrators had been tried, convicted and jailed.”

In fact, Nisman was assassinated in 2015, hours before he had been set to speak to a congressional panel about his latest allegations, regarding then president Cristina Kirchner’s alleged efforts to cover up Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing.

“What seems particularly tragic about the death of Nisman, a determined seeker of justice,” said Horovitz, “is the fear that there will be nobody of comparable caliber and guts to ensure justice for him.”

Kirchner is again seeking office, as vice president, in Argentina’s October elections. </s> Argentina designated the Iranian proxy organization Hezbollah an “Entity Tied to Acts of Terrorism” this week in anticipation of the anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters Thursday, at its time the deadliest terrorist attack in the modern history of the Western Hemisphere.

The 1994 AMIA bombing – the second against an Israeli target in Argentina in as many years, believed to have been orchestrated by the same actors tied to the Iranian regime – remains the second-deadliest attack in the hemisphere’s history after the al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001, killing 85 people between five and 73 years old.

Argentina’s Financial Information Unit (UIF) added Hezbollah to its Public Registry of Persons and Entities Tied to Acts of Terrorism on Wednesday, which freezes the organization’s assets and any assets that Hezbollah’s leaders may have stashed in the country. UIF chief Mariano Federici called Hezbollah “a current and active threat” to the Argentine homeland.

Argentina’s Public Registry of Persons and Entities Tied to Acts of Terrorism was only one day old when the UIF added Hezbollah to it. Macri created it on Tuesday to help the Ministry of Justice more easily keep funds out of terrorists’ hands. Buenos Aires’ announcement of the new registry also stated it would “allow access to and exchanges over information on people and entities tied to acts of terrorism and/or their financing and facilitate domestic and international cooperation to prevent, combat, and eradicate terrorism and its financing.”

Macri led an observance ceremony on Thursday for the victims of the AMIA attack, calling for those responsible to “be judged on Argentine soil,” for Interpol not to withdraw its red alerts, and “for no other country to give them diplomatic immunity,” which some of the suspects have received from Iran. In reporting on the new Hezbollah terrorist designation, Iranian’s state-run PressTV once again refuted any involvement in the attack, calling Argentina’s evidence “trumped-up charges.”

“Argentina accuses the Lebanese movement of carrying out the bombing, an allegation that Hezbollah describes as ‘categorically false,'” PressTV noted. “However, Buenos Aires has so far failed to provide substantial evidence and prove that Hezbollah was behind the attack.”

Through the work of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, authorities in Buenos Aires identified multiple Hezbollah and Iranian government officials as the culprits of the attack, successfully securing six Interpol red notices in 2007, which advise governments to arrest the men if they enter their respective territories. Nisman was found dead with a gunshot wound in his head in January 2015, the night before he was scheduled to present to the Argentine Congress a 300-page report accusing then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of protecting the AMIA culprits in exchange for favorable trade deals with Iran.

Police have not arrested, or even identified, anyone tied to Nisman’s death. In the immediate aftermath of his shooting, Fernández’s top prosecutor ruled the death a “suicide,” triggering widespread national protests against the socialists in power.

This week, the Argentine newspaper Clarín revealed that, according to intelligence documents, many of the same Hezbollah members and Iranian agents tied to the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina also participated in the AMIA bombing, taking advantage of lax border security measures in the South American country to smuggle explosives into the capital.

“All of the Hezbollah jihadist activists and logistics operatives left the country after that terrorist attack,” Clarín noted. “And they returned. The same ones. … the bombs were different but manufactured by the same person.”

The newspaper identifies Hezbollah bombmaker Malek Obeid as the “engineer” behind the attacks. According to Nisman’s investigations, Hezbollah targeted Argentina because Buenos Aires failed to deliver on an agreement to sell nuclear weapons materials to Tehran.

Current President Mauricio Macri, a conservative, won the 2015 election largely on his promise to bring both the AMIA terrorists and Nisman’s killers to justice. His first act as president was to cancel a “memorandum of understanding” with Iran that Fernández had signed limiting investigations on the AMIA bombing.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has offered Macri its full backing in bringing Iran to justice. In a statement honoring the victims of the AMIA bombing, the U.S. Department of State categorically described the attack as being “perpetrated by Hizballah at the direction of the Iranian regime” and said it “targeted the Jewish community and affected all those who support democratic values.”

“We remind the world that, while Argentine authorities continue their work to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice, the Iranian regime has yet to cooperate fully with them,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement, adding that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would attend an anti-terror event in Buenos Aires this weekend.

In Congress, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General William Barr urging the Department of Justice to do more to enforce the Interpol red alerts against the suspected AMIA jihadists.

“While the red notices remain valid, however, INTERPOL member states have not acted on them with sufficient urgency for the previous 12 years,” the senators wrote. “Despite international recognition that these Iranian officials were the masterminds of the AMIA bombing, they continue to hold positions of responsibility in the Iranian government, engaging in or supporting troubling malign activity worldwide.”

“We therefore urge the Department of Justice to support Argentina each time one of the implicated Iranian individuals in question travels outside of Iran. This is an important action that the U.S. can take to ensure Iran is not able to engage in terrorism with impunity, even 25 years after an attack,” the senators wrote.
Argentine Justice and Human Rights Minister Germán Garavano says that all countries are responsible to extradite the Iranian accused of the AMIA bombing to Argentina in case they ever set foot on their soil.