Iran names one of those accused of blowing up AMIA interior minister

New Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has appointed General Ahmad Vahidi Minister of the Interior, accused of being one of those responsible for the attack on AMIA, which caused the death of 85 people and injured several hundred.

Vahidi is one of those designated by the Argentinian justice as responsible for participating in the attack and an extradition request hangs over him so that he can be brought before the local courts.

This request was ratified by Interpol, which issued a red alert in 2007, qualifying its research as a top priority.

After the MoU, Interpol added a warning to those alerts that countries were negotiating bilaterally to search for the accused. This is, in practice, what has generated is that the search for Vahidi will be “smoothed”.

In addition to Vahidi, there are red alerts on four other Iranians: these are Mohsen Rabbani, who was cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Argentina when the attack took place; Ahmad Ashgari, third secretary of the Iranian diplomatic headquarters in the country; Mohsen Rezai, former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards; and Imad Moughnieh, an engineer of Lebanese origin, accused of being the foreign leader of the military wing of Hezbollah.

Vahidi was announced as minister during the presentation of Raisi’s new cabinet, state television reported. Most belong to the intransigent sector of the regime, which gives a first glimpse of its possible direction in the next four years.

Conservative clergyman and former head of the judiciary Raisi has appointed career diplomat Hossein Amirabollahian to the crucial post of foreign minister as Washington and Tehran try to revive the nuclear deal with world powers.

The list of ministers, with few surprises, must be confirmed by Parliament. The Supreme Leader regularly gives his opinion on high-level positions such as that of Chancellor.

Vahidi was appointed Iranian Minister of Defense in 2009. At that time, the government through the Foreign Ministry repudiated him. Now, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed by Felipe Solá, they have pointed out that for the moment they prefer not to comment.

The leader of the piquetero Luis D’Elía, recognized for his links with Iran, had defined Vahini as “a very prestigious soldier since the war with Iraq”.

The Iranian serviceman interviewed traveled to Bolivia in 2011 and was expelled by the then-Evo Morales government when he requested his arrest from Argentina.

He had surprisingly arrived in Bolivia for the inauguration of the headquarters of the Defense School of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), a bloc also made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua. , among others.

In 2013, then Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman assured that the Iranian government had promised that Vahidi would declare Judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral and prosecutor Alberto Nisman in Tehran if the MoU was approved. However, from there, they denied it and pointed out that it was “totally wrong”.

AFG