Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday reiterated his unflinching support for the United States and Israel in the war against Iran, speaking during a commemoration of the attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires
“There can be no truce in the face of terrorism,” Milei said.
“From its very beginning, Israel has embodied the values of freedom, and with it the commitment to confront terrorism that attempts to enslave societies through attacks like this one,” Milei said in remarks on the 34th anniversary of the bombing, which an Argentine court found was ordered by Iran.
“Today, Argentina is a partner of Israel in defending these values of freedom and combating terrorism,” he continued. “And so, through fear and threats, they tried to distance us from a partner nation that shares the same values as ours.”
The Argentine leader, who has staunchly allied the South American country with the U.S. and Israel on foreign policy, in a 180-degree shift from decades of both left and right-wing governments, said that the embassy attack and the subsequent bombing of the Jewish community center “attempted to curtail, through terror, the moral clarity of our people.
“We are making it clear where we stand at this historic moment, in which the United States and Israel have decided to put an end to the Iranian government, a tyranny that not only holds its own population captive but has devoted itself to spreading terrorism for decades,” he said.
Twenty-nine people were killed and 242 civilians were wounded in the 1992 embassy attack, while 84 were murdered and more than 300 others were wounded in the bombing at the 1994 Jewish community center, the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
Argentina’s highest criminal court concluded that Iran had planned the embassy attack and the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization had executed the plans.
Argentina is home to the largest Jewish community in Latin America, with approximately 300,000 people residing mostly in Buenos Aires.
Milei, who has billed himself as ‘the most Zionist president’ in the world, has repeatedly pledged to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem this year and is expected in Israel this spring.