EU committed to removing former Iranian defence minister from sanctions list

The European Union has agreed, under the terms of the nuclear agreement with Iran, to remove a former Iranian Defence Minister from its sanction list. Retired Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi is sought by Interpol for his alleged role in the bombing of the headquarters of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 which killed 85 people, Associated Press has reported.

Vahidi, is among a group of Iranian military officers, nuclear scientists and defence institutions set to be rehabilitated internationally in the wake of the nuclear accord.

He was a commander of Iran’s elite overseas military unit, the Qods Force, at the time of the AMIA bombing. AMIA is the acronym for La Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina—the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires’ Abasto neighborhood. It was Argentina’s worst terror attack.

A special prosecutor in Argentina has accused Iran’s government of executing the attack, using operatives from the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. Since 2007, Interpol has sought five Iranian politicians and military officers for their alleged role in the bombing.

The special Argentinian prosecutor of the case, Albert Nisman, was found dead in January of this year in mysterious circumstances, in a case that many Argentine politicians have alleged was a politically motivated assassination. He died days after announcing he would reveal evidence accusing the country’s highest authorities of complicity with Iran in covering up the AMIA bombing.

Other important Iranian military figures set to be removed from US, United Nations and EU sanctions lists over the next eight years include Major General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force, and Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, who the U.S. suspects has overseen a covert nuclear weapons programme in recent decades.