Argentina and Iran to discuss 1990s Buenos Aires bombings

GlobalPost

Iran and Argentina have agreed to a meeting to discuss two 1990s bombings in Buenos Aires for which Argentina blames Tehran.

Argentine courts have blamed Iran for sponsoring an attack on a Jewish association, which killed 85 people, reported Reuters. The bombing came two years after another attack, this one claimed by a group linked to Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that hit the Israeli embassy in Argentina's capital, killing 29. Tehran has denied links to both assaults.

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Reuters also noted that Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said, at the United Nations General Assembly, that Iran had been the country to extend the offer to meet. Kirchner said the discussions will be held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of UN member states at the foreign minister level.

The meeting will be a first between the two countries, since the attack soured relations between them, according to Agence France-Presse. Kirchner said she expects results from the discussions, as it was Iran who said it wanted to cooperate.

"We expect proposals on how to move forward on this deep conflict that goes back to 1994," Kirchner told the General Assembly, said AFP.

"The bombings at the AMIA and Israel embassy still are an open wound for us, the Argentine people," continued Kirchner, according to MercoPress. "My country that insists on dialogue, has decided to instruct its Foreign Minister to hold a bilateral meeting in the sidelines of the UN General Assembly."

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