The Argentine government announced this Tuesday (31) that it will designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard of Iran as a terrorist organization.
In the statement announcing the decision, the Javier Milei administration cited the attack on the Associação Mutual Israelita Argentina (Amia), which killed 85 people in 1994, and the terrorist attack that occurred two years earlier at the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which left 29 dead.
In April 2024, Room II of the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation attributed responsibility to Iran for the two attacks, carried out by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, an ally of the Iranian regime.
“Judicial investigations and intelligence work determined that both attacks were planned, financed and executed with the direct participation of senior officials of the Iranian regime and agents of the Revolutionary Guard,” the Argentine government said on Tuesday.
“As a result, Argentine courts have issued Interpol red notices against several Iranian citizens, including former Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi, recently appointed head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” he added.
The Milei administration stated that this designation allows for the application of financial sanctions and operational restrictions designed to limit the Revolutionary Guard’s ability to operate in Argentina, “protecting, at the same time, the Argentine financial system from being used for illicit purposes.”
“President Javier Milei hopes that this decision will pay off a historic debt of more than 30 years with the families of the victims [dos atentados de 1992 e 94] and reaffirms its commitment to the fight against organized crime and terrorism, maintaining the unbreakable conviction of recognizing terrorists for what they are,” the statement noted.
With the Argentine government’s designation, 18 countries and the European Union now consider Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. In South America, Ecuador and Paraguay had already taken such a measure.
