April 24, 2024 | The Jerusalem Post
Iran’s president in Sri Lanka, as Argentina seeks arrest of Iran’s interior minister
The AMIA suicide bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, a Jewish Community Center.
April 24, 2024 | The Jerusalem Post
Iran’s president in Sri Lanka, as Argentina seeks arrest of Iran’s interior minister
The AMIA suicide bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, a Jewish Community Center.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi visited Sri Lanka on April 24, where he vowed to strengthen ties with the South Asian country. It is the first high-level visit of this kind in 16 years. This visit came under the shadow of a decision by Argentina to seek the arrest of Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi. “The request comes less than two weeks after a court in Argentina held Iran responsible for the 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed,” the BBC noted.
— Cancillería Argentina 🇦🇷 (@CancilleriaARG) April 23, 2024
Vahidi had arrived in Pakistan earlier this week, but did not appear to travel on to Sri Lanka. The BBC reported that Argentine asked Pakistan and Sri Lanka to detain Vahidi. “While a red notice alerts police in member countries about internationally wanted fugitives, it does not constitute an arrest warrant,” the report said.
Al-Arabiya noted that Sri Lanka and Iran are “set to sign five pacts, or Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on the visit, only the second since one in April 2008 by Iran’s then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.” One of these will relate to a hydroelectric project.
Al-Ain media in the UAE noted that the Iranian president had journeyed to Sri Lanka after his visit to Pakistan, but that the Interior Minister of Iran was not present. This is clearly a setback for Iran and its usual impunity to commit crimes around the world and back terrorist groups and not have any pushback. Now Iran appears slightly shaken by the Argentinian decision.
“The official Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported that the Minister of the Interior returned to Iran yesterday, Tuesday, where he attended the inauguration ceremony of a regional governor,” Al-Ain media noted. “On Tuesday, the Argentine government asked Pakistan and Sri Lanka to arrest the Iranian Interior Minister, whom it accuses of involvement in the attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994,” Al-Ain also noted.
The decision by the Iranian president to continue on without part of the delegation is an embarrassment for Iran as it seeks to do outreach in South Asia.
Seth Frantzman is the author of Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machine, Artificial Intelligence and the Battle for the Future (Bombardier 2021) and an adjunct fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies.