Ahmadinejad Chooses Interesting Cabinet Member
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A former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been nominated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, to head the country’s defense ministry, despite being listed on Interpol’s wanted register for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina.
Argentinian prosecutors joined Jewish groups last night in condemnation of Ahmadinejad’s decision to propose Ahmad Vahidi for the senior cabinet post.
Vahidi has been on an Interpol “red notice” since November 2007, in connection with the car bomb attack on the Israeli-Argentine Mutual Association (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and injured 150 – the worst attack on a Jewish target outside Israel since the second world war.
Interpol’s red notices are alerts to its 187 member nations. They are not arrest warrants but are sometimes interpreted as a request for apprehending a suspect.
At the time of the attack Vahidi, who is currently Iran’s deputy defence minister, commanded a notorious unit of the Revolutionary Guards called the Quds Force. It is known for orchestrating Iran’s overseas operations including working alongside Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which is accused of carrying out the Buenos Aires attack on the instigation of Iran.
Iranian lawmakers have yet to ratify the 21-member cabinet. Fears have been voiced that his selections were based on their loyalty rather than experience.
Sometimes you have to wonder if Ahmadinejad is really making all of these moves for the betterment of Iran, or just because he likes the media attention it gives him. Perhaps he also is trying to higher those who are most against the Jewish population, as if he needed to solidify his beliefs in that arena. Regardless, just because the people aren’t protesting in the streets of Tehran any longer, very strange events are still occurring basically everyday in Iran. Don’t let that country slip out of the spotlight.
UPDATE: The Cabinet has been approved by parliament.
Ahmad Vahidi (Interpol)
