On January 27, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Argentinean counterpart Hector Timerman signed an agreement to jointly probe into the bombing of the AMIA building in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
"This initiative has prevented some countries and political currents from interfering in our good relations with the Latin American states," Mehman-Parast told the Islamic republic news agency.
He noted that Israel was trying to link the AMIA deadly incident to Iran, but Tehran's agreement with Buenos Aires prevented Tel Aviv from achieving its goal.
"The AMIA bombing is a fully suspicious case and no independent and impartial fact-finding mission had ever been commissioned to deal with it (before)," Mehman-Parast added.
After Iran and Argentina signed the deal over AMIA, the Israeli regime showed an angry reaction. "We are stunned by this news item and we will want to receive from the Argentine government a complete picture as to what was agreed upon because this entire affair affects Israel directly," Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Yigal Palmor said on January 28.
In a statement on January 30, however, the Argentinean Foreign Ministry said Israel's demand for explanation over the agreement, described by Argentinean President Fernandez as "historic," was an "improper action that is strongly rejected."
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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Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Iran and Argentina's initiative to set up a "fact-finding commission" to investigate the deadly 1994 bombing of AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires has blocked the US and Israel's meddling in Iran's good relations with the Latin American countries.
News ID 184468
