Argentina has called on Qatar to arrest a visiting Iranian Vice President over his alleged responsibility for the deadly 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, AFP reported on Tuesday.
Iran's vice president for economic affairs, Mohsen Rezai, is wanted by Argentinian special prosecutors for alleged participation in the planning of the July 18, 1994 bomb attack against the AMIA building, which killed 85 people and wounded 300.
Special prosecutors submitted a petition to Argentina's foreign ministry calling for all appropriate diplomatic levers to be pulled, noting an outstanding Interpol red alert against Rezai as well as newspaper clippings mentioning his visit to Qatar, according to the official Telam news agency.
A diplomatic source told AFP that the foreign ministry had granted the special prosecutor's request after confirming Rezai's presence in the Gulf country.
The ministry "requested the collaboration of Interpol for the arrest," while Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero "instructed the Argentine ambassador in Doha... to communicate urgently with the Qatari Foreign Ministry and report on the situation," the diplomatic source told AFP.
Rezai and Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who has also been implicated in the AMIA attack, were both named to President Ebrahim Raisi’s cabinet last year.
Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, has long been linked to the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people, and the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires that killed 85.
The Iranians are accused of ordering Hezbollah to carry out the AMIA bombing, which was the deadliest terror attack in the South American country's history.
Argentine investigators accuse five former Iranian former officials of orchestrating the July 18, 1994 car bombing.
Iran denies involvement in the AMIA attack and has repeatedly rejected Argentine demands for the accused to testify.