BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina’ s foreign minister asked U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to include the 1994 bombing attack on the AMIA Jewish center in the negotiations with Iran.
Hector Timerman on Tuesday sent a letter to Kerry and another to Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Liberman, calling for the attack to be added to the agenda for world powers in their talks with Iran on its nuclear program. The letter noted that similar requests have gone unheeded.
“Today, I am asking you again that the AMIA issue be included in the negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the letter urged.
On Tuesday, Timerman summoned the U.S. ambassador to Buenos Aires, Noah Mamet, and Israel’s ambassador, Dorit Shavit, to a meeting in which they were informed of the letter.
The letter also discussed the current allegations against Timerman, who is Jewish, and Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who are accused of covering up Iran’s involvement in the bombing in order to normalize trade relations with Iran.
“As for the terrible attack on AMIA, that happened almost 21 years ago and took the lives of 85 people, most of them Argentines, we continue to trust that the Argentine judiciary will apply the law to the perpetrators of such heinous criminal acts,” it said. “However, the judiciary has not been able to detain, judge or condemn the perpetrators of such a frightening act.”
The letter also suggested that Argentina is a “theater for conflicts that are completely unrelated to our history.”
“My country rejects such acts and we don’t want them to happen in our territory,” Timerman wrote.
AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead on Jan. 18, hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that Kirchner, Timerman and other government officials covered up Iran’s role in the AMIA attack.
