UN/Cristina Fernandez. The World Jewish Congress described Argentina´s president´s speech in the GA as positive

“I think that the speech itself is all right in what has to do about Iran, which was very positive because it stood by the AMIA bombing and Israel´s embassy victims. We can see that it is a wound that she still feels. I think it is very good from that point of view”, Evelyn Sommer, Chair, World Jewish Congress, North America, said, in dialogue with the Jewish News Agency (AJN).

Sommer considered that Cristina Fernandez “presented a solution to the AMIA victims´ families” when she confirmed the decision to order chancellor Hector Timerman to meet with this Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, a meeting requested by Iran.

For the Jewish leader, the Argentinean government tends to look for “the truth for the victims and their families”. In this way, she added that the president “must find out what happened in that bombing”.

She also outlined that the president, during her speech, said that “on September 19Th she received an invitation from the Iranian government and she named Timerman to meet with Iran”. According to what Sommer interpreted, the president said that “the objective is to know what happened and find out a solution, that could be what came up in 2011”, when she proposed in the UN that a third country should judge the Iranian citizens suspected of having participated in the AMIA attack, where 85 people died and hundreds were wounded. 

Sommer also valued Cristina Fernandez´s decision that after hearing Iran´s proposal she will have it debated between the victims´ families and the Argentinean Parliament because “it is a very big problem that only the president can solve”.

“I think it is very good and correct. If the Foreign Minister will meet with Iran´s Foreign Minister we must know what will happen during their dialogue and anything offered must be presented to the Argentinean Parliament and the victims´ families”, she said.