Iran pulls envoy from Argentina

Iran pulls envoy from Argentina

No-one has been charged over the bombing

Iran has recalled its top envoy in Buenos Aires for consultations amid a growing row over the deadly bombing of a Jewish community centre in the city in 1994.

The Iranian embassy's Charge d'Affaires, Mohammad Ali Tabatabaei, returned to Tehran on Tuesday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

An Argentine judge has sought the arrest of four Iranian officials for alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing, in which 85 people died and hundreds more were wounded.

The Argentine intelligence service has long believed Iran was behind the car bomb attack, a charge Iran has denied.

On Monday the Argentine Government summoned Mr Tabatabaei and asked him to explain Iran's reaction to the arrest warrants, after Iran warned it would take "appropriate measures".

Argentine Judge Juan Jose Galeano has asked Interpol to arrest:

• Ali Fallahian, the former Iranian intelligence minister
• Mohsen Rabbani, the former cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires
• Ali Balesh Abadi, a diplomat
• Ali Akbar Parvaresh, a former education minister.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi has accused Israel of being behind the "baseless allegations".

Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Ruckhauf has said the government was not involved with the request for the men's arrests, but that the case was being handled by a judge.

No one has been charged over the bombing, the worst act of terror in the Argentina's history.