A display in Buenos Aires of pictures and names of victims of the 1994 AMIA bombing, in which 85 people died and hundreds more were wounded. Photo: Reuters / Marcos Brindicci.

The Organization of American States (OAS) has passed a resolution condemning the recent visit to Nicaragua of a top Iranian official wanted in connection with the bombing nearly thirty years ago of the AMIA Jewish Center in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and more than 300 wounded.

Sponsored by the US and Argentina, the resolution was approved at a virtual session on Wednesday of the Permanent Council of the OAS — a Washington, DC,-based regional grouping that brings together 35 nations in the western hemisphere.

The presence of Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s Vice-President for economic development, at the Jan. 10 inauguration in Managua of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was condemned as “an affront to Argentine justice and to the victims of the attack on the AMIA.”

Rezaei is one of six Iranian operatives who became the subjects in 2007 of “Red Notices” — arrest alerts issued by Interpol, the international law agency — for their roles in the AMIA bombing. At the time of the atrocity in July 1994, Rezaei was the commander of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

The OAS resolution also stressed the importance of its member states respecting and acting upon Interpol Red Notices. It urged “the Nicaraguan authorities, all members of the inter-American system and all members of Interpol to act, in an appropriate manner, in relation to the Interpol red notices related to the AMIA attack.”

Wednesday’s resolution followed a meeting in Washington, DC, the previous day between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero. A statement noted that the two diplomats had expressed “serious concern about the recent visit to Nicaragua of Iranian Vice President Mohsen Rezai, subject of an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated murder and damages in connection with the 1994 AMIA bombing, which killed 85 people in Buenos Aires.” It added that Blinken and Cafiero had “discussed cooperation on efforts to bring to justice those suspected of complicity in the attack.”

Nicaragua’s representative at the OAS meanwhile scorned the resolution as an affront to his country’s sovereignty.

“Nicaragua, as an independent nation, is free to invite whomever it wants,” Ambassador Arturo McFields told the meeting. “If that person arrives with a positive attitude, our doors are always open.”

The US-Argentine resolution on Wednesday was backed by several other OAS member states, including Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru.

In a separate development on Wednesday, Rezaei himself took aim at the US over Tehran’s relations with Moscow.

Rezaei, who is chairman of the Iran-Russia parliamentary friendship group, told Iranian media outlets that the US was “unhappy” with the growing closeness between the two regimes. He emphasized that Iran and Russia were “eager” to negotiate on oil and gas swaps, pointing to the presence of Oil Minister Javad Oji in the entourage currently accompanying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on an official visit to Russia.