Bolivia says Iranian minister to leave immediately

Bolivia said on Tuesday it had taken steps to ensure that Iran's defence minister, who is accused by Argentina of planning the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, leave Bolivia immediately. The statement came in a letter from Bolivia's foreign minister to his counterpart in Argentina, which said that the Iranian official, Ahmad Vahidi, was in Bolivia at the invitation of the country's Defence Ministry. Bolivia's Foreign Ministry sent the letter to Argentina's government apologising for the invitation, assuring it that Vahidi would not be in the country for long. "As a result of this lamentable situation ... the government of Bolivia has taken the corresponding provisions to see to it that Ahmad Vahidi immediately leaves Bolivian territory," the letter said.