Saudi magazine prints Israeli journalist’s account of Iran role in Buenos Aires bombings
Periodical owned by publishing house close to King Salman features lengthy investigative article with Tel Aviv dateline
A leading Saudi newsmagazine closely tied to the Saudi royal family unprecedentedly published a major article by a prominent Israeli journalist that details Iran’s responsibility for the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center offices in the Argentinian capital.
The article, “Holding Iran Responsible,” which cites “overwhelming evidence” of Iran’s role in the two devastating terrorist attacks in which more than 100 people were killed, was published in the November-December edition of Majalla magazine.
Majalla, which is published in London, is owned by a publishing house which is chaired by a Saudi prince, Badr bin Abdullah Al-Saud, and was formerly chaired by a son of Saudi King Salman, Prince Turki bin Salman Al Saud.
The piece was written by Israeli author Ronen Bergman, although Majalla does not explicitly state this. The article is, however, datelined “Buenos Aires – Tel Aviv.”
Bergman told The Times of Israel that the magazine, which has widely covered Israeli issues, had never previously commissioned a piece from an Israeli journalist.
The article opens with anguished testimony from an Israel diplomat, Danny Carmon, whose wife Eliora, the mother of their five children, was killed in the 1992 Embassy bombing.
It focuses heavily on the evidence accumulated by Argentinian investigator Alberto Nisman proving Iran’s direct responsibility for the two bombings — the 1994 AMIA bombing was commissioned by top Iranian leaders in a meeting they held in Mashad in 1993 — and Nisman’s allegations that the previous Argentinian government of president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner attempted to cover up Iran’s role. So definitive and persuasive were Nisman’s conclusions that Interpol placed the key Iranian conspirators, along with the former Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, on its international watch list, requiring member countries to assist in their arrests and extradition. Among those on the Interpol “red notice” list are Iran’s former defense minister Ahmad Vahidi and failed presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai.
Nisman was found dead in January 2015 in a pool of blood, with a gunshot wound to his head, in his home in Buenos Aires hours before he was set to detail his allegations against Kirchner to an Argentinian congressional panel.
The Arabic version of the article includes a photograph of Nisman and Bergman at the latter’s home in Israel.
Saudi-Israeli relations have been gradually warming in recent years, in large part because of shared concerns over the Iranian regime and especially its nuclear program.
A Saudi general visited Jerusalem and met with Knesset members last summer, and there have been various meetings between Saudi and Israeli officials in Washington, DC, and elsewhere.
Israel and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations.
