ARGENTINA DENOUNCES IRAN OVER 1994 TERROR ATTACK ON JEWISH CENTER

Kirchner condemns Iran's president (JTA)
Argentina's president denounced Iran's lack of cooperation in solving a terrorist attack on a Jewish center.

Nestor Kirchner in his speech Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly denounced the lack of Iranian cooperation in solving the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

“I want to stress here, in the United Nations headquarters, that unluckily and until today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not collaborated with the Argentine Justice,” Kirchner said.

AMIA President Luis Grynwald and Aldo Donzis, the president of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella group, president, both praised the “braveness and force of the speech.” Sergio Burstein, spokesman for the “Familiares” victims’ relatives group, praised Kirchner as well. Familiares has asked Kirchner to raise the AMIA issue at the United Nations.

From its Buenos Aires headquarters, the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded Kirchners’ “eloquent” speech and sought cooperation from the international community in the search for justice in the AMIA case.

In November 2006, the Argentine Justice Department demanded that Interpol arrest five Iranians and a Lebanese citizen accused of participating in the AMIA bombing, in which 85 people were killed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad followed Kirchner to the U.N. podium.

Iran Warns Argentina Ahead of President Kirchner's UN Speech (AFP)
Iran has warned Argentina against joining the enemy camp if Argentine President Nestor Kirchner criticizes Tehran at the UN General Assembly, Iran's ambassador to Buenos Aires Moshen Baharvand told the daily Clarin Friday.

Kirchner is expected to mention Argentina's probe into Iranian involvement in a deadly attack on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association in 1994 that left 85 dead and 300 injured.
If Kirchner accuses Iran of wrongdoing, "numerous countries will understand that Argentina is in favor of war," Baharvand said.

Four relatives of victims from the attack, as well as leaders of top Jewish associations in Argentina, also planned to travel to New York and attend the session.

In 2006, an Argentine judge issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and other top Iranian officials in connection with the bombing.