Tehran blamed for Jewish bombings in Buenos Aires

A court said Iran ordered the attack in 1992 on Israel’s embassy and the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite ­Mutual Association Jewish centre.

Some 85 people were killed and 300 injured in the bombing of the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires on 18 July 1994. Picture: AFP

More than three decades after deadly attacks in Buenos Aires targeted Israel’s embassy and a Jewish centre, an Argentine court on Thursday (Friday AEST) placed the blame on Iran and declared it a “terrorist state”.

The ruling said Iran ordered the attack in 1992 on Israel’s embassy and the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite ­Mutual Association Jewish centre.

The court also implicated the Iran-backed Shia movement Hezbollah and called the attack against the AMIA – the deadliest in Argentina’s history – a “crime against humanity,” according to court documents cited by media reports.

“Hezbollah carried out an operation that responded to a political, ideological and revo­lution­ary design under the mandate of a government, of a state,” Carlos Mahiques, one of three judges who issued the decision, told Radio Con Vos, referencing Iran.

In 1992, a bomb attack on the Israeli embassy left 29 dead. Two years later, a truck loaded with explosives drove into the AMIA Jewish centre and detonated, leaving 85 dead and 300 injured.

The 1994 assault has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Hezbollah carried it out at Iran’s request.

Prosecutors charged top Iran­ian officials with ordering the attack. Tehran has denied any involvement.

Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with some 300,000 members. It also is home to immigrant communities from the Middle East – from Syria and Lebanon in particular.

The judges ruled on Thursday that the AMIA attack was a crime against humanity, and put blame on then-president Hashemi Rafsanjani as well as other Iranian officials and Hezbollah members.

The decision was welcomed by the president of the Delegation of Israelite Associations of Argentina, Jorge Knoblovits, who told Radio Mitre the ruling “is very important, because it enables the victims to go to the International Criminal Court”.

Carlos Menem, who died in 2021 and was Argentine president at the time of both attacks, was tried for covering up the AMIA bombing, but ultimately acquitted. His intelligence chief Hugo Anzorreguy was sentenced to 4 ½ years in jail for his role in obstructing the probe.

He was among some dozen defendants who faced a slew of corruption and obstruction of justice charges in the case.

AFP