BUENOS AIRES: Argentina has issued a new arrest warrant for an Iranian official in connection with the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, a move that coincides with that same individual’s appointment as the new head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) .
Ahmad Vahidi was named commander of the IRGC on Sunday, just a day after the unit’s previous leader was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli strikes . At the time of the AMIA bombing, Vahidi led the IRGC’s Quds Force, a paramilitary branch responsible for foreign operations .
The 1994 attack on the AMIA building in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and injured hundreds more . Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon, was quickly identified as having executed the attack, with Iranian officials accused of directing it . An arrest warrant for Vahidi was first issued by Argentine prosecutors in 2006, and he has been the subject of an Interpol Red Notice since 2007 .
Efforts to hold those responsible have faced numerous setbacks over the years. In 2015, prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused then-Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of covering up Iran’s role in exchange for trade benefits, was found dead from a gunshot wound—a case that remains unresolved .
The new warrant for Vahidi comes amid a reinvigorated push for accountability by the current Argentine government. Since the 2023 election of a pro-Israel president, authorities have reopened the inquiry into Nisman’s death—now considered a homicide—and advanced the investigation into the bombing . A landmark legal ruling in 2024 officially declared that Iran and Hezbollah were responsible for the attack .
