BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — Argentina has asked Azerbaijan to arrest a high-level Iranian official in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
Alí Akbar Velayati, an advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is scheduled to attend a religious leaders summit beginning Nov. 14 in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Velayati was Iran’s foreign minister at the time of the attack and has been accused of ordering the bombing.
The Argentine foreign minister summoned the Azerbaijani ambassador on Friday and asked for his country’s cooperation “in order to carry out the detention for extradition purposes.”
Several Iranians have been on Interpol’s most wanted list since 2007 in connection with the bombing. They include Mohsen Rabbani, a mullah and former cultural attaché who is believed to be a leading figure in spreading radical Islam in Latin America.
In 2016, ahead of another Velayati trip, Argentina made requests for his arrest to Singapore and Malaysia but was not successful. Two years later, another unsuccessful request was made to Russia.
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