Argentine Probe Frays Iran Ties

A war of words between Iran and Argentina has brought the two nations to the brink of a rupture in diplomatic relations.

Days after Argentina expelled seven Iranian diplomats, however, Tehran’s last remaining diplomat here recently greeted visitors to the heavily barred embassy with polite tones and gift-wrapped pistachio nuts.

Charge d’Affaires Abdolrahim Sadatifar even made a reference to “our Jewish brothers,” categorically denying new accusations related to a 1994 terrorist bombing that razed a Jewish community center and killed 86 people.

Argentine investigators are working toward the conclusion that the Iranian government ordered and directed the attack by a terrorist squad aided by corrupt Argentine police commanders, according to sources close to the case.

Sadatifar, interviewed last week, accused Argentina of trying to make Iran a scapegoat.

“There is a great deal of international pressure by the CIA and the Mossad--that is, by the governments of Israel and America,” he said. “But the Argentine government is going to lose, especially at a time when other nations are moving closer to Iran.”

But it is the testimony of former Iranian officials that has propelled Argentina’s double-barreled diplomatic and judicial offensive.

“Argentina avoided taking measures without evidence,” said Jorge Raventos, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. “But everything indicates that an interruption in relations is likely, depending on the investigation and the judge’s actions.”

Referring to conciliatory moves by a regime that took power last year in Tehran, Raventos said: “We are aware of the political change in Iran. Its government is paying for the deeds of a past government. Lamentably, the timing has worked out that way.”

Argentina sent home the Iranian diplomats after Iran, angered by the probe, reduced the Argentine presence in Tehran to one envoy and cut trade ties.

Investigating Magistrate Juan Jose Galeano traveled to Germany recently to question the former No. 3 official of Iran’s intelligence service. The defector was the star witness against Iranian operatives convicted of killing dissidents in a Berlin restaurant six years ago.

He testified that Iran’s top leaders decided in 1992 to attack the Jewish center here. The alleged motive: retaliation for Argentina’s termination of an agreement that supplied nuclear material and advisors to Iran, part of an Argentine policy shift.

The defector testified that the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires has served as the intelligence headquarters for South America, according to Javier Astigarraga, a lawyer for the victims of the bombing. The Jewish and Arab immigrant communities in Argentina are among the largest and most politically prominent in the hemisphere.

The defector singled out the embassy’s former cultural attache, Moshen Rabbani, as a terrorist field commander who prepared a support network for the attack. The testimony confirmed suspicions that led Argentina to bar Rabbani from the country months ago, authorities said.

But Sadatifar defended his fellow diplomat. “He is a religious man,” Sadatifar said. “There is no way he could be connected to terrorism, to something so savage.”

Some political observers urge restraint until the case is proved. They note that Germany retained ties with Tehran even after a court concluded that Iran’s intelligence chief ordered the Berlin attack.

And there are worries here about violent reprisals because of both the diplomatic rift and a police raid on an Iranian-owned meat exporting company suspected of serving as a cover for espionage.

But Sadatifar said Iran will not launch any attack because it had no link to the one in 1994 and another, on the Israeli Embassy in 1992, in which Iran-backed terrorists are also suspected.

“Many things could happen, but I am not someone who would know anything about that,” he said. “We have nothing to do with this because civilized men, men of culture, have no need to use savage weapons.”