Argentina, Iran to hold talks in Geneva on 1994 attack

Argentine and Iranian representatives will meet in Geneva Monday to discuss a 1994 bombing of a Jewish aid association in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured 300 others, the foreign ministry said Sunday. "It is a working meeting on the AMIA case under terms agreed during a meeting of foreign ministers September 27 in New York," the ministry said in a statement, referring to the acronym for the Israelite-Argentine Mutual Aid association. At their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, had agreed to continue the dialogue over the attack until they reach a "mutually agreed upon solution." Timerman at the time said the follow-up talks were to "explore a legal mechanism" for resolving the matter "not in contradiction with the legal systems of Argentina and Iran." Since 2006, the Argentine courts have demanded the extradition of eight Iranians, including current Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to face charges in the attack. The attack, the deadliest ever in Argentina's history, followed a 1991 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that left 29 dead and 200 wounded. The Israeli government has expressed "great disappointment" that Argentina's foreign minister had agreed to the talks with the Iranians, saying there was "no room for doubt" that Iran was responsible.