By Jubin Katiraie
Argentina has called on the Republic of Azerbaijan to arrest and hand over Ali Akbar Velayati, the Iranian Supreme Leader’s advisor on international affairs and a member of the Expediency Council.
There are two questions at the same time:
1. What does the Argentine government have to do with this arrest warrant?
2. What crime did Ali Akbar Velayati commit?
Argentina has gone further and summoned the ambassador of Azerbaijan in Buenos Aires and expressed its deep concern about the presence of Ali Akbar Velayati in Baku and called for Azerbaijan’s cooperation in his detention.
Crime and Punishment
Reading this news and its margins evoke in mind the scenes of the eternal novel ‘Crime and Punishment’ by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. In addition, emphasizing on the fact that crime will not go without retribution and that the blood of the victim will one day ring on the neck of the killer, even if the killer is Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s advisor.
Surprisingly, 25 years after it happened, the case is still active in Argentina.
What crime is being talked about?
The explosion in AMIA (Buenos Aires)
On 18 July 1994, a car bomb exploded, converting a Jewish charity building in Buenos Aires into rubble. The blast killed 85 and injured more than 200. The operation was designed so that its perpetrators could not be easily identified. As the world was in awe, three weeks after this terrorist adventure, the National Council of Resistance launched a massive revelation and surprised the news agencies.
Terrorism and Extremism Has Finally Caught up With Mullahs’ Regimehttps://t.co/gWy2HPOecA #Iran pic.twitter.com/bpTmJnxbFP
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 20, 2018
According to information revealed by the NCRI, the bombing decision was made at a meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council led by then-President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on 13 August 1993, with military advisers and members of the Security Council finally approving it, after the final approval by Ali Khamenei. The execution was given to Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Qods Force. Vahidi entrust the execution in a meeting of the Qods Force Command Council with the attendance of Hossein Mosleh (Commander of Qods external Operations), Morteza Rezaei (IRGC Intelligence), Tehrani (Qods Force Support) and Ahmad Salek (Khamenei’s Representative in the Qods Force), Iranian diplomats Ahmad Reza Asghari and Mohsen Rabbani, as well as Imad Fayez Mughniyah, a key official of Lebanese Hezbollah.
The reason for the explosion in AMIA
The export of terrorism is a constant fixture of Iran’s policy. Because of the appeasement policy with this regime, they have had a free hand to commit any terrorist act on the ground of other countries. In order to have a clear picture of why a terrorist act is committed on the Argentine ground, one must revisit past events with a flashback.
Associated Press reported on 14 June 1991: At a major press conference, Mohammad Mohaddessin (head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance) announced, that in March 1990 the Iranian government had allocated $ 200 million to a nuclear weapons program supported by Argentina, Pakistan, and China.
It was after this revelation that international pressure on Argentina forces them to end its aid to Iran for making nuclear weapons and the Argentine government terminated its nuclear weapons deal with the mullahs.
Years later in November 2006, when Alberto Nisman, the head of the AMIA investigative team, reporting about the details of this terrorist operation, he cited the information that the NCRI revealed 15 years ago and said: “The operation took place when the Argentine government decided to stop sending nuclear technology and its materials to the Iranian regime.”
With the termination of the contract by the Argentine government, the Iranian government decided to take criminal retaliation and, the highest level of its officials planned the AMIA terrorist explosion.
$ 10 million bribes for covering up the crime
The Iranian government tried to hide this crime by paying $ 10 million bribes to then-Argentine President Carlos Menem.
https://t.co/thh7yK9xot Argentine judge orders arrest of former president Kirchner #Japan #usa #ap
— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) December 8, 2017
The Washington Post revealed this deal in December 2006. Carlos Menem lost his credibility. Judge Juan José Galliano was also arrested for deflecting the judicial process. After this, Alberto Nisman took over the lead of a research team. Finally, on 26 October 2006, the Argentine federal prosecutors formally charged Rafsanjani and four of his cabinet ministers and filed a request to arrest them.
#Iran ‘s Involvement in #Argentine #Attack https://t.co/b50TQfOsYa pic.twitter.com/LpT3J9WSXw
— Iran Focus (@Iran_Focus) December 8, 2017
Ali Akbar Velayati was at that time of the explosion Iran’s Foreign Minister and was said to be actively involved in deciding on the bombing and its subsequent coordination.
Failure to fasten
The Iranian government while not having any other choice took another step to hide its hands by signing an agreement with the Argentine government to establish a truth commission on the bombing.
AFP wrote an Argentine court has declared that an agreement with Iran to investigate the bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires is illegal and the final decision is with the Supreme Court.
Earlier, Alberto Nisman had said: “The agreement is an unjustified interference by the executive branch in the specific area of the judiciary.”
Trying to kill a conscience
On 18 January 2015, the blood-stained body of Alberto Nisman was found at his home, along with a 22 mm caliber colt. His assassination came just one day before he was due to attend a congressional hearing to testify behind closed doors and unveil a bloody monetary deal between the government of Cristina Fernandez Kirchner and the Iranian government.
Every crime has retribution; today, however, this blood, the martyr of justice, is still pointing his finger at the perpetrators of this terrorist operations.
