BUENOS AIRES — Argentina announced Sunday that it had reached an agreement with Iran to establish a joint commission to investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center here.
Nearly 19 years ago, a suicide bomber drove a van full of explosives into the Argentina Israelite Mutual Association headquarters, killing 85 people and wounding about 300. Like a previous attack two years earlier that leveled Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29, it has never been solved.
The initial investigation into the community center bombing was thrown out in 2005 on accusations of corruption and incompetence by Argentine authorities, some of whom would later be charged for misconduct.
A special prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, has since taken over the investigation and accused Hezbollah, the Lebanese group with strong ties to Iran and Syria, of carrying out the bombing and senior Iranian officials of planning and financing it. Mr. Nisman declined to comment on the new agreement.
Iran has refused to carry out international arrest warrants for nine people Argentina suspects in the attacks. But under the agreement, it will now permit prosecutors to interrogate suspects in Tehran. The suspects include a former Iranian president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi.
The accord stipulates that the two countries establish a five-member commission of international law experts. None can be of Argentine or Iranian nationality.
The accord, signed in Ethiopia, concluded several rounds of talks between Argentina’s foreign minister, Héctor Timerman, and his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi.
“Eighteen years of effort have failed to advance the case or prove anything against Iran, indicating that Iran is innocent,” the Tehran-based Fars news agency said in its lead story Sunday.
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner hailed the accord as “historic.”
“The attack was followed only by failures and scandals. The trial ended up a farce,” Mrs. Kirchner wrote on social networks. “We will never allow the A.M.I.A. tragedy to be used like a chess piece in geopolitical affairs,” she said, referring to the Argentine Mutual Aid Association, the center that was bombed in 1994.
Each country has reasons to reach out. Iran is a consumer of Argentina’s agricultural commodities, an especially important tie as Argentina’s economy slows. Iran’s trade with Argentina has grown by 200 percent in the last few years, to more than $1.2 billion.
For its part, Iran is eager to counter its diplomatic isolation, expanding on the ties it has forged in Latin American nations like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Jewish groups, however, were wary of the negotiations.
“Argentina is legitimizing Iran’s style of governance and getting nothing in return,” said Guillermo Borger, the president of the Argentine Mutual Aid Association.
Argentina and Iran to Investigate Jewish Center Bombing
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Argentina and Iran to Investigate Jewish Center Bombing
