Israel’s envoy to Buenos Aires has asked the Argentinean authorities for a response to a report that appeared in the press there Saturday, alleging that Iran suggested that Argentina “forget” about the two bombings there in the early 1990s in return for improved financial relations, Israeli diplomatic officials said Sunday.
According to the Argentinean tabloid Perfil, the Islamic Republic asked the South American country to drop the ongoing investigation into the bombings, which are believed to have been carried out by Hezbollah and Iran. The 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and Jewish center in Buenos Aires killed 114 people and wounded hundreds.
“Argentina is no longer interested in solving these two attacks, but would rather improve its economic relations with Iran,” the newspaper quoted an Iranian document it said it had obtained.
Foreign Minister spokesman Yigal Palmor said that so far Israel had no confirmation of the report, “and we are still waiting for an official comment from the Argentinean Foreign Ministry.”
Should the report prove to be true, Palmor said, “It would be a manifestation of cynicism and insult to the memory of the victims. But, as I have said, we are still waiting for the Argentine Foreign Ministry to issue an official reaction.”
Perfil, which is a vocal critic of Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez, said the offer was made to Argentinean Foreign Minister Hector Timerman during a recent visit to Damascus, where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a close ally of Iran.
Timerman is the son of Jacobo Timerman, the Jewish journalist and publisher imprisoned and tortured during Argentina’s Dirty War from 1976-1983. After his release from prison in 1979, Timerman was exiled and immigrated to Israel, where he became an acerbic left-wing critic of the government’s policies. He returned to Argentina in 1984.
Pepe Eliaschev, the journalist who reported the story in Perfil, has been accused of having an anti-Fernandez bent, sources said.
Over the past several months, he has spoken out against the incumbent on several radio talk shows ahead of the October 2011 general elections.