NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (EJP) --- The Anti-Defamation League expressed its ‘deep concern and disappointment’ Monday at the Argentine government’s decision to seek Iran’s help in investigating the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires, following the Islamist regime’s 20-year failure to claim responsibility for the deadly attack which the majority of the international community attributes to it.

ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman issued a statement slamming the newly-launched joint ‘Truth Commission’ as “an unprecedented attempt to establish a mechanism with no enforcement powers to internationalize the criminal proceedings against Iranian nationals with ties to the world’s most notorious state sponsor of terrorism which have been pursued for years by professional Argentine prosecutors”.

The 1994 terrorist attack killed 85 Argentine nationals and injured hundreds. The move adds further bureaucracy to the judicial process, alleged Foxman, “and may even eliminate, the possibility of bringing the accused Iranian perpetrators of the terrorist attack to justice under Argentine law”, as he called on Argentinian President Kirchner to reverse his decision to cooperate with the Iranian regime.

“The prolonged pain and suffering of the survivors and the families of the victims of the most devastating terror attack on a Jewish institution in the Western hemisphere are all but forgotten in this ill-considered agreement,” concluded the official comment.

Meanwhile, at a daily press briefing in Washington, US State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland strove for a more diplomatic response to the initiative, as she expressed America’s desire for justice, as well as insisting that “the Iranian Government has a responsibility to cooperate fully with Argentine authorities in seeing that the perpetrators are brought to justice”.

Conceding the Iranian government had not “been forthcoming” to this end, she expressed moderate cynicism about the likelihood of the commission hastening the justice process, as she concluded that “if the Argentine government thinks that this might take us closer to that, then we’ll have to see”.

Argentina earned a reputation for opening its doors to Jewish immigration, which it did so until 1938, when the government instituted new legislation preventing the flow of immigrants at a time of Nazi aggression in Europe. The Jewish community feared the rise to power of nationalist leader Juan Peron in 1946, when Argentina became a safe haven for Nazis seeking refuge from prosecution. Final Solution architect Adolf Eichmann moved to Argentina after the war, where he lived until his capture by Israeli Mossad agents in 1960. After Peron conversely established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1949, huge waves of Argentinian Jews began emigrating to the Jewish State.

 The Jewish population of Argentina currently stands at approximately 250,000, the largest in Latin America, the majority of whom live in the capital.