US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Argentinian authorities on Friday for designating Hezbollah a terrorist organization and ordering a freeze of the group's assets during a counterterrorism conference in Buenos Aires.
During his opening statement, Pompeo said he was moved by the country's touching tribute to the 85 victims of Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) bombing 25 years ago in a memorial service earlier in the day.
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The memorial was a powerful prologue to today's ministerial, a "reminder that the hemisphere is not immune from the sting of foreign terror."
Pompeo directly implicated Iran for the July 1994 terrorist attack in his speech delivered at the Counterterrorism Ministerial held at Argentina's Foreign Ministry, saying that "the AMIA bombing was carried out by Hezbollah with the full support of the regime in Tehran."
The attack by Hezbollah, Pompeo said, was the reason why the Trump administration slapped sanctions against Salman Raouf Salman, the suspected "mastermind" and "on the ground coordinator" behind the AMIA bombing, with the US Treasury announcing a freeze of his assets and a $7 million reward for information on his location.
Pompeo continued by noting that Salman was still roaming freely today, 'continuing to conduct terrorism on behalf of Hezbollah," adding the United States "wants this killer brought to justice."
Also on Friday, Channel 13 News reported that Pompeo had denied a request by his Israeli counterpart, Yisrael Katz, for a meeting, citing scheduling conflict.
According to the report, Katz requested a meeting while visiting Washington last week, for the first time since being formally appointed to the position.
A statement released by Pompeo's office said that a scheduling conflict prevented the US Secretary from meeting Katz, adding that another encounter would be scheduled in the near future.
This article was originally published by i24NEWS.
