Saturday, July 18, marked the 32nd anniversary of the bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires. Eighty-five people were killed and more than 300 wounded in the deadliest antisemitic terrorist attack outside Israel since the Holocaust.
Iran has long stood accused of the attack. Argentine prosecutors and a 2024 Argentine court ruling have shown how the Tehran regime employed members of its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah to carry out the AMIA attack, as well as the bombing two years earlier of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people.
For more than three decades, Iranian official Ahmad Vahidi, one of the principal suspects accused by Argentine prosecutors of involvement in planning the AMIA bombing, has not only evaded justice but he now leads one of the regime’s most powerful military and security institutions.
At the time of the bombing, Vahidi was commander of the Quds Force, the external operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), giving him broad control of Iran and Hezbollah’s global terror apparatus. Investigators have alleged that Vahidi was present at a high-level meeting in August 1993 where Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is believed to have approved the AMIA attack. Vahidi was given operational control and oversaw planning of the bombing with Hezbollah.
Since the bombing, Vahidi has held key positions at almost every major institution in the regime. From founding commander of the Quds Force, on to deputy defense minister, defense minister, strategic planner, president of the Supreme National Defense University, interior minister, member of the Expediency Discernment Council. And now he’s been given charge of the regime’s central security pillar as commander-in-chief of the IRGC.
Vahidi ascended to the post after the previous IRGC chief, Mohammad Pakpour, was killed on February 28 in the opening stages of this year’s joint US-Israel campaign. Pakpour himself had replaced Hossein Salami, who was taken out in an Israeli strike during the June 2025 campaign against Iran.
Argentina immediately condemned Vahidi's appointment. President Javier Milei’s office denounced the elevation of "one of the principal suspects in the AMIA bombing." And yet perhaps nothing better illustrates the true nature of Iran’s vicious regime than the fact that a man wanted by Argentine courts for the murder of 85 people was made leader of Iran's most powerful military institution.
Since 1994, the obstacle to justice wasn’t just Tehran’s refusal to surrender Vahidi and other Iranian officials accused of involvement in the bombing. An equally daunting problem was Argentina's own mishandling of the case. The original investigation was marred by corruption, fabricated evidence, political interference, and judicial misconduct, resulting in convictions of Argentine officials for covering up aspects of the investigation rather than convictions of those responsible for the bombing itself.
In 2004, federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman revived the case, concluding that senior Iranian officials ordered the attack and Hezbollah carried it out. In 2006, he obtained arrest warrants from an Argentine judge, and at Argentina’s request INTERPOL published Red Notices for Vahidi and six others implicated in the plot.
In January 2015, Nisman accused then-Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and several senior officials of conspiring to shield the Iranian suspects through the 2013 Argentina-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. Days later, Nisman was found dead at his Buenos Aires home. Argentine prosecutors and courts have concluded that he was murdered, although those responsible have not been brought to justice. It seemed that the AMIA case was again destined to be set aside.
And yet in the past three years under President Javier Milei’s administration, Argentina has aggressively pursued justice in the AMIA case and even revived the possibility of potential prosecutions. The government has embraced Nisman's findings, supported legislation authorizing trials in absentia for the suspects, and secured judicial approval to try seven Iranian and three Lebanese defendants despite their absence.
In April 2024, Argentina announced that it was again seeking the arrest of Vahidi. In January 2026, the Milei government designated the Quds Force and 13 associated individuals as terrorist entities, linking the organization to the AMIA attack and the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing. In April, the government expanded the designation to the entire IRGC, and singled out Vahidi, noting that he commanded the Quds Force at the time of the AMIA bombing, and remains a suspect in the AMIA case.
The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) commends the Milei government for undertaking Argentina’s most serious effort in decades to break the legal stalemate surrounding the AMIA case and pursue those responsible, particularly IRGC head Ahmad Vahidi.
And yet family, friends, Argentina’s Jewish community, and men and women of good will around the world still await accountability for the 85 people who were murdered in cold blood 32 years ago. As we commemorate the anniversary of this evil visited upon innocents, we resolve to keep fighting for the justice that is rightfully theirs.
Shay Salamon is Executive Director of Latin American Affairs for the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).