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Argentina asks Qatar to arrest high-ranking Iranian official

Mohsen Rezai, Tehran’s VP for economic affairs, led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at the time of the AIMA bombing in Buenos Aires.

By JNS

Mohsen Rezai, Iran’s vice president for economic affairs, is wanted by Argentine prosecutors for alleged involvement in planning the July 18, 1994, terrorist attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA, which killed 85 people and injured 330.

Rezai, commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at the time of the bombing in Buenos Aires, is one of several senior Iranian officials accused by Argentina of masterminding the suicide attack on the country’s main Jewish community center.

Special prosecutors petitioned Argentina’s foreign ministry, requesting that all applicable diplomatic levers be employed and citing an outstanding Interpol red notice against Rezai and newspaper clippings revealing his visit to Qatar, Argentina’s state-owned Télam news agency reported.

The ministry authorized the special prosecutor’s request after confirming Rezai’s presence in the Gulf country, Agence France-Press reported, citing a diplomatic source.

The ministry “requested the collaboration of Interpol for the arrest,” while Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero “instructed the Argentine ambassador in Doha…to communicate urgently with the Qatari Foreign Ministry and report on the situation,” the source said.