ARGENTINA: Argentinian prosecutors have accused Iran of masterminding the deadly bombing of a Jewish cultural centre here 12 years ago and are seeking the arrest of ex-Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and other former officials of the Islamic republic.
Argentine authorities have long contended that Iran was involved in the attack, which killed 85 and injured more than 200, but this was the strongest allegation to date linking Iran to the bombing.
The decision to strike the Jewish facility was made "by the highest authorities of the then government of Iran," prosecutor Alberto Nisman told a news conference here on Wednesday.
Two years ago, a dozen former Argentine police officers were acquitted of charges of participating in the bombing plot.
Iranian officials arranged with Hizbullah, the militant Lebanese group with close ties to Iran, to organise and execute the bombing, the prosecutor said.
The plot was hatched in August 1993, Mr Nisman said, almost a year before the strike.
There was no immediate reaction from Iran or Hizbullah. Both have previously denied involvement.
A US embassy spokesperson in Buenos Aires congratulated Argentine authorities for their findings in the "worst anti-Semitic attack since the second World War" in a comment widely reported in the Argentine media.
The prosecutor is asking a judge here to seek international arrest warrants for Mr Rafsanjani, who served as Iran's president from 1989 to 1997.
He also is seeking arrest warrants for six other former Iranian officials, including Iran's former foreign minister and intelligence chief, two ex-commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, and two former diplomats at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires.
The prosecutors also asked the judge for an arrest warrant for Imad Fayez Moughnieh, identified as Hizbullah's former chief of international security.
Wednesday's allegations arise from a special prosecution unit investigating the attack, which remains unsolved despite years of inquiry and controversy here.
Last year, prosecutors here said a Lebanese man, Ibrahim Hussein Berro (29), had been identified as the suicide driver of the van which exploded outside the Jewish facility.
Why Iran would target the site remains a matter of intense speculation. Prosecutors here linked the strike to Argentina's previous decision to cancel agreements to provide Iran with nuclear technology.
The attack came more than two years after a March 1992 blast destroyed the Israeli embassy here, killing 29.