Argentina seeks Khamenei's arrest over Buenos Aires bombing

An Argentine prosecutor has requested the arrest of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

Prosecutor Sebastián Basso, who replaced the late Alberto Nisman, asked federal judge Daniel Rafecas to issue national and international arrest warrants for Khamenei, according to Argentine paper Clarin.

Basso also requested the application of trial in absentia for the remaining Iranian and Lebanese suspects named in the case.

Some of the high-level officials accused in the bombing case include former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has since died, then-Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian.

Others include former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaee, former Quds Force commander Ahmad Vahidi, former Iranian diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari, former cultural attaché Mohsen Rabbani, and Imad Mughniyeh, the late Hezbollah operations chief.

The move follows the passage of a law promoted by President Javier Milei last year, allowing trials in absentia in cases involving grave crimes.

The bombing remains Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack. On July 18, 1994, a truck loaded with explosives detonated outside the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people and injuring hundreds.

In April 2024, Argentina’s top criminal court found that the bombing was carried out by Hezbollah militants under “a political and strategic design” by Iran. Iranian officials have denied any role in the attack, and no suspects have stood trial to date.

In 2015, Alberto Nisman, the Argentine prosecutor who was later succeeded by Basso, was found dead days after accusing then-President Cristina Fernández of covering up Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing. A federal judge later ruled that Nisman had been murdered.

Last year, President Javier Milei announced the new legislation aimed at allowing the prosecution of those responsible. “Today we chose to speak out, not stay silent,” Milei said.

“We choose life, because anything else is making a game out of death ... While they may never be able to serve a sentence, they will not be able to escape the eternal condemnation of a free court proving their guilt to the entire world.”

Milei has blamed the “fanatical government of Iran” for the bombing and linked the 1994 attack to the October 7, 2023, assault by Hamas on Israel. “The terrorism of that tragic Oct. 7 is exactly the same terrorism that attacked us 30 years ago,” he said.

Speaking at a commemorative event last year organized by the World Jewish Congress and the Latin American Jewish Congress, Milei also criticized previous Argentine governments and the judiciary for “negligence, cover-up, and manipulation of evidence” in the case.

In the same week as his speech, Milei’s government declared Hamas a terrorist organization, a move which irked Tehran, and said that “in recent years, a link with the Islamic Republic of Iran has been revealed.”

A report last year by the INSS said the government of President Javier Milei is "an ardent ally of both the United States and Israel", and said the Argentine government still holds Iran accountable for the attacks in 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, in addition to the AMIA bombing.

"In total contrast to previous governments, the current [Argentinian] regime is willing to stand up to Iran and its axis of resistance. Argentina is no longer willing to sweep the problem under the rug," the report said.

Argentina is also trying to secure the extradition of Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, last year issuing a request to Interpol for his part in the AMIA bombing.