Argentina Studies Iran Offer on Bombing Anniversary

Posted July 18th, 2011 at 8:20 pm (UTC-5)
Leave a comment

Argentina says it will study an offer by Iran to cooperate with the investigation into a 1994 bombing that leveled a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people.

Foreign Minister Hector Timerman made the remark Monday on the 17th anniversary of the country's worst terrorist attack. He was quoted as saying Iran is ready to open a “constructive dialogue” with Buenos Aires on the case.

Some Argentines have dismissed the Iranian offer as hypocritical. Also, during a ceremony at the rebuilt Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association, relatives of the victims called on the Argentine government to do more to bring those responsible to justice. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner attended the event.

Argentina accuses Iran of masterminding the truck bombing of the center. Argentine prosecutors have said it was carried out by members of the pro-Iranian Lebanese-based militant group, Hezbollah. Both Tehran and Hezbollah deny any role in the bombing.

No one has ever been convicted for the attack on the community center. Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America.

A separate bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992, which killed 29 people, also has gone unpunished.