Face of Nation : US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Argentinian authorities on Friday for designating Hezbollah a terrorist organization and ordering a freeze of the group’s assets during a counter-terrorism conference in Buenos Aires.
During his opening statement, Pompeo said he was moved by the country’s touching tribute to the 85 victims of Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) bombing 25 years ago in a memorial service earlier in the day. “The memorial was a powerful prologue to today’s ministerial, a reminder that the hemisphere is not immune from the sting of foreign terror.”
Pompeo directly implicated Iran for the July 1994 terror attack in his speech delivered at the Counterterrorism Ministerial held at Argentina’s Foreign Ministry, saying that “the AMIA bombing was carried out by Hezbollah with the full support of the regime in Tehran.”
The attack by Hezbollah, Pompeo said, was the reason why the Trump administration slapped sanctions against Salman Raouf Salman, the suspected “mastermind” and “on the ground coordinator” behind the AMIA bombing, with the US Treasury announcing a freeze of his assets and a $7 million reward for information on his location.
Pompeo continued by noting that Salman was still roaming freely today, ‘continuing to conduct terrorism on behalf of Hezbollah,” adding the United States “wants this killer brought to justice.”
On July 18, 1994, a suicide driver blew up a van filled with explosives, destroying the headquarters of the Jewish community known as AMIA, killing 85 people and wounding more than 200.
No one ever claimed responsibility for the AMIA center attack. Argentina also blames Hezbollah for an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people.
