“We have presented the agreement to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) to be ratified,” Mehmanparast told IRNA on Sunday.
On January 27, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Argentinean counterpart, Hector Timerman, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to shed light on the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead. AMIA stands for the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.
Argentina’s Senate on February 21 gave the green light to the agreement with Iran on the AMIA case with the senators voting 39-31 in favor of the MoU.
Argentinean lawmakers later signed the agreement into law after a 14-hour session with 131 ayes against 113 nays.
Spokesman for Iran’s Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Seyyed Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini on March 3 stressed that the deal requires parliamentary approval, saying based on the Constitution, Majlis must ratify all Iran’s agreements, accords and memoranda of understanding with other countries.
Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Timerman have endorsed the agreement, which stipulates that the fact-finding commission, composed of five foreign legal experts, should issue a report after carrying out an evaluation of Argentina’s investigation into the issue.
Under intense political pressure from the US and Israel, Argentina had formally accused Iran of having carried out the bomb attack. The Islamic Republic has categorically denied any involvement in the terrorist bombing.
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Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says a recent agreement between Iran and Argentina to set up a truth commission to investigate the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing has been submitted to the Majlis for approval.
News ID 184431
