The AMIA Bombing: Thirty Years Later

On July 12, Argentina’s President Javier Milei placed Hamas on its terrorism list, proclaiming the government’s “unwavering commitment to recognizing terrorists for what they are.” 

The terrorism of the organization that is bankrolled, trained, and inspired by the Islamic Republic of Iran once again hit home for Argentina. On October 7, Hamas kidnapped nine-month-old Kfir and his older brother Ariel, along with their parents Shiri and Yarden Bibas, from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with other Argentine family members. They were among the more than 200 people abducted from their homes in Israel as Hamas assaulted the country, savagely killing some 1100 people, including reportedly nine citizens of the South American country.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry identified twenty-one of their citizens believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. Six Argentinian hostages were freed on November 27 and 28 as part of a ceasefire deal. Thirteen are thought to remain in Gaza as of today.

It is not only civilians that the Islamic Republic has sought to brutalize. Since its establishment in 1979, the Islamic Republic has elevated assaulting and bombing embassies and kidnapping and murdering diplomats to an art form. A case in point is the bombing of Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992.

Iran’s invocation of the inviolability of embassies to launch an unprecedented barrage of ballistic missiles and killer drones against the State of Israel on April 13 was selective outrage. Thank Argentina’s Criminal Cassation Court for a stark reminder that Iran does not practice what it preaches.

Just two days before Tehran launched its attack on Israel, ostensibly to uphold the very same international law it has routinely violated, the court ruled that Iran and Hezbollah had engaged in “crimes against humanity,” and in “grave violations of human rights” when it bombed the AMIA, Argentina’s Jewish community center, on July 18, 1994. In total, eighty-five people were killed and 300 wounded. The court also blamed Iran for orchestrating the 1992 embassy bombing.

Iran, the court said, organized, financed, and planned both attacks, which Hezbollah, no stranger to targeting embassies and murdering diplomats, executed on Iran’s behalf.

The court’s rulings and statements are not just evidence of Tehran’s rank hypocrisy. They hold out hope for the victims’ families the case may bring them closer to the justice they deserve. 

Following the ruling, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, proclaimed, “The era of impunity has ended in the Argentine Republic.” He further said that former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who sought to sweep these cases under the rug by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tehran in 2013, had betrayed the nation.

The MOU would purportedly have had the two countries—the victims and the perpetrators—jointly investigate the AMIA bombing. In other words, the arsonist would investigate the fire. It was a sham, as the late special AMIA prosecutor Alberto Nisman said, designed to lift INTERPOL red notices that would provisionally apprehend six senior Iranian officials who planned and approved the plot to bomb the AMIA. The MOU sought to absolve Iran of its responsibilities, not hold it accountable. In 2014, a court reviewed the MOU and found it unconstitutional. 

In a scandal that rocked Argentina in 2015, Nisman was found dead with a bullet in his head and ketamine in his blood the day before he was due to brief Argentina’s Congress that Kirchner and her associates had sought to whitewash Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing. Critics of Kirchner have insisted that Nisman may have paid with his life for denouncing the former president and her deal with Iran. Nisman’s granular work also informed the Cassation Court’s conclusions.

President Milei has shown once again that he is serious about shifting Argentina’s posture toward Iran. There are ample opportunities to leverage the court’s rulings and the judge’s proclamations. 

In addition to designating Hezbollah and now Hamas, Argentina can place Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on Argentina’s terrorism list. The list also includes the Iranian officials with INTERPOL red notices and Lebanese who carry out Iran’s directives.

Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit has the authority to freeze the assets of entities and individuals on the list, and it should do so. The FIU could also ask members of the Egmont Group, a worldwide network of financial intelligence institutions, to support an asset freeze for listed entities. This would telegraph to the international banking sector that these accounts are toxic.

Argentina should also reassess diplomatic relations with Iran. Argentina’s highest criminal court has just proclaimed Iran is a “terrorist state.”  Should it be allowed to maintain a staffed embassy in Buenos Aires? 

 Argentina could also consider bringing a case against Iran to the International Court of Justice to ensure international accountability. Meanwhile, countries with appropriate universal jurisdiction laws can open criminal investigations and facilitate lawsuits against Iran. 

Argentina can provide foreign prosecutors and courts with the massive body of evidence gathered to ensure no place is safe for those implicated and to provide a legal basis for asset seizure worldwide.

Argentina should urge extending INTERPOL’s red notices against those implicated in the AMIA bombing when they expire, including Salman Raouf Salman’s (aka Salman el Reda) when it expires in just a few weeks.

Moreover, Buenos Aires should demand that the international community not let those implicated travel freely without risking apprehension. Our research shows that since the red notices or Argentine arrest warrants were issued, those with red notices or arrest warrants have traveled to twenty-two countries since 2007. These include Latin American nations like Bolivia and Nicaragua.

Bolivia has also signed a military cooperation agreement that may include Tehran sending drones to La Paz—an ominous development for regional security. Venezuela continues to act as Iran’s gateway to Latin America and its strategic, forward-operating base in the Western Hemisphere.

Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico failed to condemn Tehran’s missile barrage against Israel while having been the targets of past Iranian terror machinations. Brazil also hosted an Iranian navy port call last year and is indulging Iranian-sponsored propaganda networks on its soil.

President Milei should warn Iran’s allies that there are consequences for those who facilitate Iran’s regional penetration. Through diplomatic interaction, Argentina should remind the world of Iran’s lengthy rap sheet and that appeasement only emboldens and legitimizes the clerical regime’s depraved atrocities. With thirty years having passed since the bombing, Iran’s leaders should know the world has neither forgotten nor forgiven its crimes and see through its misplaced sanctimony. It’s time for the era of impunity to truly end.

Toby Dershowitz is FDD Action’s managing director. Follow her on X: @tobydersh.

Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on X: @eottolenghi.

Image: Matias Lynch / Shutterstock.com.