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Argentine president defends accord with Iran over bombing
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner speaks with the media as she attends the summit of the Community of Latin American, Caribbean States and European Union (CELAC-UE) in Santiago January 27, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Jorge Sanchez
BUENOS AIRES |
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine President Cristina Fernandez defended a pact with Iran to set up a "truth commission" to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and asked Congress on Thursday to approve the accord.
Argentine courts accuse Iran of sponsoring the attack, which killed 85 people. The pact signed with Tehran has been criticized by Israel and Jewish groups who fear it could end up weakening the case against Iranian officials.
They also see it as a diplomatic victory for Iran as it faces international isolation over its nuclear program.
"What I want to avoid ... is the pain of the (victims') families and the country's shame by finding the path to break the deadlock," the left-leaning Fernandez said in a speech, refuting criticism over the accord.
"The memorandum of understanding we have signed is a step toward unblocking a case that has been paralyzed for 19 years," she added. "Dialogue is a part of Argentina's foreign policy."
Fernandez said she sent a bill to Congress asking it to approve the agreement, which envisions the establishment of a five-member "truth commission" of international legal specialists.
It also outlines plans for Argentine prosecutors to travel to Tehran to question Iranians accused of links to the attack, which Iran denies any involvement in.
In 2007, Argentine authorities secured Interpol arrest warrants for five Iranians, including Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, and a Lebanese citizen.
(Reporting by Helen Popper; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
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“Disappearing” ideas and people is one thing Argentina is well known for.
As for Iran’s gambit in this “noble” joint endeavour, one is fairly challenged to decide if he should laugh or cry.
It will end the same way as the German government’s interest in locating and punishing both high and low ranking Nazi’s in the years following WW II, 99.99 % of whom never saw the inside of a courtroom or spent even a single day in jail.
Who in their right mind believes for one second that Iran, a rabidly anti-semitic country whose leaders have repeatedly made their genocidal intentions for the State of Israel well known, will ever assist in handing over a single individual who participated in the heinous 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
The so-called “Memorandum of understanding” signed with Iran is more than a sick and obscene joke and not worth the paper it is written on.
As in the case of tracking down the Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann, who Israel’s Mossad captured in Buenos Aires and spirited on a plane back to Jerusalem, to stand trial for his blood thirsty crimes, the long arm of Israel will eventually mete out proper Justice to the planners and executioners of the 1994 bombing that killed 85 innocent people in Buenos Aires.
Likewise, those who perpetrated the Munich massacre of Israel’s entire Olympic Team were all eventually tracked down and punished by Israel.
It is said the “Wheels of Justice turn slowly, But they grind exceeding small”.
Often the truth about people is written, in plain sight, all over their face. The photo accompanying the story depicts a person who appears to use an excessive amount of make-up to “cover up”. One may draw one’s own conclusion.
Nevertheless, those who orchestrated the 1994 Buenos Aires slaughter of 85 people at a Community Center know very well that they are living on borrowed time. They can run but they cannot hide.
The survivors of that horrific 1994 bombing have long memories.
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