News Brief

Argentina’s president denounced Iran’s lack of cooperation in solving a terrorist attack on a Jewish center.

Nestor Kirchner in his speech Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly denounced the lack of Iranian cooperation in solving the 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

“I want to stress here, in the United Nations headquarters, that unluckily and until today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has not collaborated with the Argentine Justice,” Kirchner said.

AMIA President Luis Grynwald and Aldo Donzis, the president of the DAIA Jewish political umbrella group, president, both praised the “braveness and force of the speech.” Sergio Burstein, spokesman for the “Familiares” victims’ relatives group, praised Kirchner as well. Familiares has asked Kirchner to raise the AMIA issue at the United Nations.

From its Buenos Aires headquarters, the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded Kirchners’ “eloquent” speech and sought cooperation from the international community in the search for justice in the AMIA case.

In November 2006, the Argentine Justice Department demanded that Interpol arrest five Iranians and a Lebanese citizen accused of participating in the AMIA bombing, in which 85 people were killed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad followed Kirchner to the U.N. podium.

Prominent Jewish Republican Ned Siegel has been confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

Siegel, a former chairman of the Florida chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition and a resident of Boca Raton, is the founder and CEO of the Siegel Group real estate investment company. He also serves on the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and has been an adviser to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations for the U.N. General Assembly.

Siegel was prominent fund-raiser for Jeb Bush’s gubernatorial campaign in Florida and contributed at least $200,000 to the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign.

In his statement to the Senate Sept. 12 in anticipation of his confirmation, Siegel said he plans to combat international crime, drugs and illegal migration, and to strengthen ties between the United States and the Bahamas.