Argentina to Designate Hezbollah as a Terror Group

Argentina’s government is preparing a decree to designate Hezbollah as a terror organization two weeks before the 25th anniversary of the bombing of AMIA (Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina), Argentinian newspaper La Nacion reported on Tuesday.

The AMIA bombing, which occurred July 18, 1994, targeted the Israeli embassy and the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killed 85 people and injured 300 people, and has long been blamed by the Argentine government on Hezbollah.

President Mauricio Macri tasked the Ministry of Security and the Financial Intelligence Unit to find the fastest solution to include Hezbollah in the terror organizations list.

"We are evaluating different possibilities. One of them is to pass a decree. We do not have a majority in Parliament, and it would take too long to pass a law there," sources in the two entities noted.

"The list will be made up of organizations that have concrete pretensions, red alerts, concrete imputations to carry out attacks in argentine territory," Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, declared.

Hezbollah's designation corresponds with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Argentina to commemorate the AMIA bombing on July 18.