Friday, President Javier Milei of Argentina took a mostly symbolic step toward strengthening Argentina’s ties to the United States and Israel by designating Hamas as a terrorist organization and imposing a freeze on the Palestinian movement’s financial assets.
Milei’s office announced the decision citing the cross-border attack on Israel last October 7 by the militant Palestinian group, which was the bloodiest strike in Israel’s 76-year history, killing almost 1,200 people and taking 250 more prisoner.
The close relations between Hamas and Iran were also noted in the statement. Argentina holds Iran responsible for two deadly militant attacks on Jewish landmarks in Argentina.
The relocation occurs a few days before the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which marks the 30th anniversary of one of those incidents. It was the deadliest attack of its kind in Argentina’s recent history, leaving hundreds more injured and 85 dead.
In the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, almost twenty individuals lost their lives. The Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon, which receives support from Iran, is alleged by Argentina’s judiciary to have carried out the two attacks.
Declaring that “this is the first time that there is a political will to do so,” Milei reaffirmed her “unwavering commitment to recognizing terrorists for what they are” in Friday’s announcement.
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