Argentina expels Iran’s top diplomat amid rising tensions

BOGOTA, Colombia

Argentina’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that it has declared Mohsen Tehrani, Iran’s charge d’affaires and highest-ranking diplomat in the country, “persona non grata,” ordering him to leave Argentina within 48 hours.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Worship announces that the Argentine Republic has declared Mr. Mohsen Soltani Tehrani, Counselor and Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a ‘persona non grata,’ in accordance with Article 9 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and he must leave the country within 48 hours,” the statement said.

The move is a response to Tehran’s recent “false, offensive, and unwarranted” accusations against Buenos Aires. The rupture follows President Javier Milei’s decision to formally designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, amid a series of provocative exchanges between the two countries.

In February, Argentina drew Tehran’s ire by praising the joint US-Israeli operation that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Milei has described Iran as “our enemy” and called himself “the most Zionist president in the world.” Iran condemned these remarks as a “strategic error” and an “unforgivable insult.”

The Argentine Foreign Ministry also cited Iran’s “persistent refusal” to cooperate with the investigation into the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, noting decades of noncompliance with Interpol Red Notices for suspects.

Tehrani, whose credentials were accepted in 2021 under former President Alberto Fernandez, leaves Iran without its top diplomatic representative in Argentina.