WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging the United Nations to bar Iran’s new defense minister from all U.N. events and facilities.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Wiesenthal Center founder and dean Rabbi Mavin Hier said Iran’s nomination of Ahmad Vahidi, who is suspected of involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Argentina, which killed 85 people, "makes a mockery of all victims of international terrorism, is an offense to Argentine sovereignty and is a scandal for the international community." Hier also said that Vahidi should be arrested and sent to Argentina for trial if he tries to enter any U.N. building.
The international police agency Interpol has issued an arrest warrant for Vahidi.
Hier also asked the secretary-general to create a central registry of terrorism suspects, such as the Crowcrass list used after World War II to locate Nazi war criminals.
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