Iran Hails Talks with Argentina on 1994 Bombing

Iran said on Wednesday that it held "very constructive" talks with Argentina last week over long-standing accusations of Iranian involvement in a deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish aid group in Buenos Aires.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met his Argentine counterpart Hector Timerman in Zurich, Switzerland, last Thursday to discuss the accusations leveled against eight Iranians, including top regime officials, the foreign ministry said on its website.

"The meeting with Timerman aimed at achieving progress in the legal process was very constructive," the ministry quoted Salehi as saying.

"I hope these talks lead to a good outcome," he added.

In the July 18, 1994 attack, a van loaded with explosives blew up outside the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Aid Association (AMIA), leveling the seven-floor building housing it.

The bombing came two years after an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires killed 29 people and wounded 200.

Iran has always denied involvement in the attacks.

In 2006, the Argentine judiciary issued a request for the extradition of eight Iranians, including current Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, to face charges over the AMIA bombing.

Timerman said last month that Argentina was going to "present an action plan that will be discussed at the next meeting to be held in January."

Argentine and Iranian officials held preparatory discussions in Switzerland in October last year.

That drew criticism from both Israel and Argentina's 300,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in Latin America. Both have been demanding there be no let-up in the Argentine authorities' efforts to put the Iranian suspects on trial.