Deal Reached for Inquiry on Bombing in Argentina

[struggle4progress]

By EMILY SCHMALL
Published: January 27, 2013

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina announced Sunday that it had reached an agreement with Iran to establish a joint commission to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here.

Nearly 19 years ago, a suicide bomber drove a van full of explosives into the Argentina Israelite Mutual Association headquarters, killing 85 people and wounding about 300. Like a previous attack two years earlier that leveled Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29, it has never been solved.

The initial investigation into the community center bombing was thrown out in 2005 on accusations of corruption and incompetence by Argentine authorities, some of whom would later be charged for misconduct.

A special prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, has since taken over the investigation and accused Hezbollah, the Lebanese group with strong ties to Iran and Syria, of carrying out the bombing and senior Iranian officials of planning and financing it. Mr. Nisman declined to comment on the new agreement ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/world/americas/argentina-and-iran-to-investigate-jewish-center-bombing.html