Argentine Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman’s
positive reaction to an Iranian statement saying it was willing to cooperate with Buenos Aires in its search for the terrorists responsible for the AMIA building attack 17 years ago raised eyebrows Monday in Jerusalem.
“The investigation is over,” one official said, adding that what was needed now was for the Iranians to hand over those responsible for the attack that killed 85 people, and wounded 300, on July 18, 1994.
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Perfil in March about whether Timerman offered to drop the probe into the attack in exchange for better economic relations with Iran.
Timerman angrily said at a press conference in Jerusalem in April that he did not have to answer questions not based in reality.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement earlier in the week saying it was willing to cooperate in the search for those who carried out the blast at the Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
On October 25, 2006, Argentine prosecutors Alberto Nisman and Marcelo Martínez Burgos formally accused Tehran of directing the bombing, and blamed Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is one of five people wanted by Interpol for the attack.
According to a report Sunday in the
Buenos Aires Herald,
Timerman said regarding the Iranian statement that “if what was
published in international press is confirmed, it would be an
unprecedented and very positive step forward.” He was quoted as saying
that he was awaiting an official confirmation from his Iranian
counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi.
But Nisman dismissed the Iranian statement, saying at a press conference
that if the Iranians wanted to cooperate, what they needed to do was to
turn over to the Argentine authorities those accused of the attack.
Earlier this year Nisman dismissed the
Perfil
report as “absolutely preposterous, absurd,” telling a local Jewish
newspaper that the investigations into the attacks continue unhindered.