Iran nominates internationally wanted terrorist for defense minister
Exactly fifteen years and one month after Ahmad Vahidi and other Iranian terrorists masterminded the destruction of Argentina’s Jewish Community Center in a murderous attack that killed 85 and wounded 240 innocent Argentinian civilians, Iran’s “re-elected” President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has nominated the man for Defense Minister.
BBC News reports that is likely that Vahidi will be given the green light in a September 1st vote. In fact, Iran’s foreign policy committee chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that Interpol’s 2007 “red notice” which placed Vahidi and four others on its most-wanted list for the terrorist attack may actually increase the likelihood that Vahidi will get the position.
Although Argentina’s prosecutors who investigated the 1994 terrorist attack accused Vahidi of “being a key participant in the planning and of having made the decision to go ahead with the attack” against the Jewish Community Center, Iran has always denied that Vahidi had a role in the attack.
At the time of the attack, Vahidi was the commander of Iran’s Quds (Jerusalem) Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard which the U.S Treasury Department has said “has had a long history” of backing Hezbollah‘s “military, paramilitary, and terrorist activities, providing it with guidance, funding, weapons, intelligence, and logistical support.”
Not surprisingly, Vahidi’s nomination was “harshly condemned” by Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, dubbed “disturbing” by U.S. President Barack Obama, and criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for dangerously showing the world that “Iran’s official policy of support for international terrorism is alive and well.”
(Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi)
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