(Washington, DC) - Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-Queens/L.I.) today sponsored a resolution condemning the July 1994 terrorist bombing on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Extensive evidence has linked the attack to a collaborative effort between the government of Iran and the terrorist group Hezbollah.

“The survivors and relatives of the victims of the terrorist attack have been waiting for justice for thirteen years,” said Ackerman. “The inability to reach the suspected Hezbollah militants and Iranian officials has significantly obstructed the efforts of the Government of Argentina to prosecute the masterminds and planners of the 1994 bombing.”

Eighty-five people were killed and three hundred were injured during the bombing of the AMIA. The State Prosecutor of Argentina concluded that the AMIA bombing was “decided and organized by the highest leaders of the former government of Iran, whom, at the same time, entrusted its execution to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.” The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) subsequently issued an international arrest warrant for Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former leader of Iran and the current chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council, as well as other members of the Iranian government. Iran has appealed INTERPOL’s decision, and the INTERPOL General Assembly will issue a final ruling on the arrest warrants when it meets in Morocco in November 2007. 

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