Ex-Israeli envoy to Argentina: Israel killed most perpetrators of AMIA, embassy bombings
Former ambassador Itzhak Aviran accuses Argentine gov't of not doing enough to probe 1990s Buenos Aires terrorist attacks.
By JPOST.COM STAFF1994 Argentina bomb site 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian/Files)
Israel has killed most of the perpetrators responsible for the deadly attacks on its embassy and on the Argentine Jewish Charities Federation (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, former Israeli ambassador to Argentina Itzhak Aviran said on Thursday."The large majority of those responsible are no longer of this world, and we did it ourselves," Aviran told the Buenos Aires-based AJN Jewish news agency, according to AFP.In March 1992, a car bombing in front of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital killed 29 people and wounded 200 others. The Islamic Jihad took responsibility for this attack.Two years later, in July 1994, a bombing at the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured 300.Argentina suspects Iran is behind both bombings.Aviran, who was Israel's ambassador to the country from 1993-2000, accused the Argentinian government of not doing enough "to get to the bottom of this tragedy.""We still need an answer [from Argentina] on what happened. We know who the perpetrators of the embassy bombing were and they did it a second time," he said.Eight Iranians, including former defense minister Ahmad Vahidi and ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were charged in an Argentina court over the AMIA bombings and authorities have issued Interpol warrants demanding the extradition of five Iranians and a Lebanese.Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also been linked to the AMIA bombing. He was reportedly on the special Iranian government committee led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei that plotted the attack, according to an indictment by the Argentine government prosecutor investigating the case.Iran, who repeatedly denied connection to the attack, offered to set up a "truth committee" with Argentina to investigate the AMIA bombing.
