Iran Protests Argentine Stance on Ahmadinejad’s Defense Nominee

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Iran summoned the top Argentine diplomat in Tehran to protest Argentina’s allegation that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nominee for defense minister was involved in a 1994 terrorist attack in Buenos Aires.

Ahmadinejad proposed Ahmad Vahidi, who is on the Interpol wanted list, for the defense portfolio in his new cabinet on Aug. 19. Vahidi is accused of a role in the July 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in the Argentine capital, the worst terrorist attack on a Jewish target outside Israel since World War II. The blast killed 85 people and injured more than 150.

Iran accuses Argentina of “clear meddling” in its internal affairs, the Iranian Foreign Ministry told the envoy, Mario Enrique Quinteros, during today’s meeting, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. Quinteros is Argentina’s charge d’affaires, usually the No. 2 post in an embassy. Argentina and Iran withdrew their ambassadors from each other’s capitals in 1994 after the attack.

Vahidi’s “nomination to a ministerial post is of grave concern and deserves our government’s energetic condemnation,” the Argentine Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Aug. 21.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said Argentina’s stance was the result of “pressure, bribes and propaganda by Zionist lobbies,” IRNA reported, referring to Israel.

Kazem Jalali, spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Argentina’s remarks will strengthen Vahidi’s position when his nomination comes up for confirmation by lawmakers. “The Zionists’ accusation is unfounded and Iran had nothing to do with the bombing in Argentina,” IRNA cited Jalali as saying.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ali Sheikholeslami in London at alis2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Julian Nundy at jnundy@bloomberg.net.