Iran Officials May Be Linked to Jewish Center Bombing, Argentina Says

Diplomatic relations between Argentina and Iran were strained to the breaking point Thursday after the Buenos Aires government received evidence that implicates Iranian officials in the bombing of a Jewish community center that killed nearly 100 people.

“If the evidence is proven true, it leads right to the Iranian Embassy” in Buenos Aires, a well-placed Argentine government source said.

Publicly, Argentina has stopped short of formally accusing Iran, but tensions between the two countries have been rising steadily ever since a powerful car bomb on July 18 ripped through the center of Argentina’s century-old Jewish community, the largest in Latin America.

A day later, a Panamanian plane carrying Jewish and Israeli businessmen--and two U.S. citizens--was downed by a bomb, killing all 21 people aboard. And this week two bombs exploded near the Israeli Embassy and in a Jewish neighborhood in London, injuring 19.

Iran’s ambassador to Argentina was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for questioning for two consecutive days this week, and Buenos Aires on Wednesday recalled its ambassador in Tehran for consultations.

Argentine Foreign Minister Guido di Tella will appear today before the U.N. Security Council to demand a condemnation of the bombing as part of a surge in international terrorism. While he does not plan to single out Iran before the United Nations, Di Tella told The Times that he will ask for measures that make it easier to prosecute diplomats who are found to have participated in terrorist acts.

“If the participation (of Iran) is proven . . . we will respond with the maximum firmness,” Di Tella said in an interview Thursday. “It’s a very sensitive moment” in Argentine-Iranian relations.

Iran, through its ambassadors here and at the United Nations, has denied involvement in the bombing. The pro-Iran fundamentalist organization Hezbollah was blamed for the 1992 bombing of Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29, and a group thought to be associated with Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the July 18 attack.

The case, which is in the hands of federal Judge Juan Jose Galeano, centers on information provided by an Iranian defector who is seeking asylum in Venezuela. Galeano traveled secretly to Venezuela last weekend to question the man, Monousheh Moatamer. According to sources, Moatamer implicated at least two and as many as five people who work at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires.

“The information he gave me is of extreme importance,” Galeano said, declining to provide further details.

Speculation here has focused on the Iranian ambassador, Hadi Soleimanpour, and cultural attache Moshe Rabbani. Both deny any role in the bombing or in harboring or providing assistance to the bombers.

World Jewish Congress President Edgar Bronfman, in Buenos Aires to show solidarity with the Jewish community, told a news conference that Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem vowed to break off diplomatic ties with Iran if Iran’s role is proven.

Menem, speaking later to Argentine reporters, sought to soften the statement, saying Argentina’s diplomatic actions against Iran would depend on the case Judge Galeano presents.

Argentina faces two problems in suspending relations with Iran, according to diplomatic sources. About 300 Argentines live in Iran, and their safety is a concern. Also, Argentina sells more than $100 million in grains to Iran annually.

The Menem government, however, is under intense pressure to show it can investigate the attack and bring the bombers to justice. Many in the Jewish community blame the government’s lack of resolve in the past for creating the conditions that permitted the July 18 tragedy. The 1992 bombing was never resolved and no one was ever arrested.

Two Iranians have reportedly been arrested in last week’s attack, including a woman detained at the airport when she tried to leave the country with an altered passport. Argentine wire services reported late Thursday that three more people were arrested, including a man of “Arab heritage.”