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Argentine President: We Will “Make Headway” with AMIA Investigation

Newly-elected Argentine President Mauricio Macri said that his government is determined to “make headway” into the investigation of the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on Wednesday.

“We are fully committed to contribute in any way we can to make headway with this investigation,” Macri declared. “Here, we suffer the ravaging consequences of two bomb attacks. We are still in the dark of what happened.” The second attack Macri referred to was the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. The Argentine president also pointed out that his government abandoned an agreement signed by the previous administration to jointly investigate the AMIA bombing with Iran, the main suspect in the case. A court found the accord to be unconstitutional.

Macri, whose election last year was considered a setback to Iranian ambitions in Latin America, made the comments at the Plenary Assembly of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which is being held this year in Argentina. He further spoke of the historic ties between Israel and Argentina, noting that he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in January. On that occasion, Macri said he told Netanyahu that “we want to boost our relationship in order for us to work closer than ever in order to defend peace throughout the world.”

Delegates from the WJC are to participate in a commemoration marking the 24th anniversary of the Israeli embassy bombing on Thursday.

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had investigated the ties between Iran and the AMIA bombing, as well as a cover up by the previous Argentine government of Iran’s role in the attack, was found dead with a bullet wound to the head last January. His death came hours before he was scheduled to present his findings to a closed session of the Argentine Congress. Prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz concluded late last month that Nisman was murdered and recommended that the investigation into his death be referred to a federal court. A three judge panel is to rule on his recommendation Friday.

Eamonn MacDonagh, contributing editor to The Tower, has written extensively on the Nisman case. In Alberto Nisman’s Secret Recordings, Revealed, which was published in the July 2015 issue of The Tower Magazine, MacDonagh exposed some of the back channel dealings between the Argentine government’s representatives and Iranian interlocutors.

[Photo: World Jewish Congress ]