Town Hall, 18 July, by Alejo Vidal-Quadras
Thursday marks the 30th anniversary of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to be carried out in the Western hemisphere. The bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association building on July 18, 1994, claimed 85 lives and left a trail of scandal in its wake which is still having repercussions to this day. No one has ever been held legally accountable for the incident, though it has become increasingly apparent over the past three decades that the attack was planned by the Iranian regime and carried out by its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.
There were several other attacks in the 1980s and ‘90s that fit the same description and although the tactics of the regime and its terrorist agents have changed with time, the threat of their attacks has never gone away. I should know. Just last November, I narrowly avoided an attempt on my own life which clearly fit the modus operandi of mercenaries in Tehran’s employ. My would-be assassin approached me outside my home in Madrid and fired a single shot at my head before fleeing on the back of a motorcycle driven by an accomplice. If I had not turned my head in response to the gunman’s voice, I would have been killed on the spot.
There is a long history of motorcycles being used in assaults and assassinations by Iran’s hardline paramilitary, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and various criminals who it has contracted to carry out its work far from Iran. While the investigation of my attack is still ongoing, three individuals were arrested soon after and Spanish authorities are currently pursuing the extradition of three other persons alleged to have been involved in preparing and financing the operation. The information that has come to light so far points to a multinational network obscuring the plot’s origins, but there has never been any doubt in my mind that it was ordered by Tehran.
As I told investigators immediately after I’d undergone surgery to remove the bullet and repair my shattered jaw, I have no other enemy but the Iranian regime. In fact, I have the distinction of being among the first European politicians to be included on that regime’s formal enemies list, on account of my long standing support for the coalition of pro-democracy opposition groups known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). As head of the International Committee In Search of Justice, I have been heavily involved in efforts to bring to justice the Iranian officials involved in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, which primarily targeted members of the NCRI’s main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
