Argentina declares Iranian envoy persona non grata, gives him 48 hours to leave

Argentina on Thursday declared Iranian charge d’affaires Mohsen Tehrani “persona non grata” and gave him 48 hours to leave, the nation’s foreign ministry said, as the US-Israeli war against Iran entered its second month.

According to the statement, the move came in response to “false, offensive, and improper accusations” by Tehran, which on Wednesday accused Buenos Aires of “siding with the aggressors” and violating international law by declaring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terror group.

Iran’s accusations “constitute unconstitutional interference in our country’s internal affairs and a deliberate misrepresentation of decisions adopted in accordance with international law and national judicial order,” Argentina’s foreign ministry said.

The decision to expel Iran’s envoy was also due to Iran’s “persistent refusal” to cooperate with a probe into the 1994 AMIA bombing that killed 85 people and wounded more than 300 at the Jewish community center, in the worst such attack in Argentine history, Argentina’s foreign ministry said.

Argentina has an “unbreakable commitment to the memory, justice and fight against terrorism, in complete adherence to international law,” it said.

Argentine courts have long blamed Iran for both that attack and another explosion at the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people and wounded 200.

Iran denies involvement and has refused to hand over any suspects, including senior Iranian military officer Ahmad Vahidi, who was named IRGC chief after his predecessor and much of Iran’s top brass were killed at the start of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran on February 28.

Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with nearly 300,000 people living mostly in Buenos Aires.

Under President Javier Milei, who took office in late 2023, Argentina has been a close ally of Israel and the US.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.