Buenos Aires, Argentina –

Argentina’s top criminal court on Thursday reported new progress in the pursuit of justice for the deadliest attack in the country’s history – the 1994 bombing of the headquarters of a Jewish community center – concluding that Iran orchestrated the attack and that the Lebanese Party militant groups carried out the plan.

In a ruling obtained by The Associated Press, Argentina’s Supreme Court found Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah responsible for a bombing at a Buenos Aires community center that killed 85 people and injured 300 others. and destroyed the largest Jewish community in Latin America. The court said the attack was retaliation for Argentina’s breach of a nuclear cooperation agreement with Tehran.

An Argentine court accused Iran of playing a “political and strategic” role in the bombings, paving the way for the victims’ families to file lawsuits against the Islamic Republic. Iran has not surrendered citizens convicted of crimes in Argentina over the past three decades. An Interpol arrest warrant went nowhere.

“These serious violations of human rights are of great significance to the entire international community and require states to provide judicial protection,” the ruling said, declaring the bombing of the Argentinian Jewish Mutual Aid community center a “crime against humanity.”

The court’s decision was not surprising. Argentina’s judiciary has long maintained that Iran was behind the attack, which has chilled relations between the two countries – especially after a joint investigation failed. Iran denies involvement. A spokesman for Hezbollah, Israel’s arch-rival on the northern border, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Instead, some said they were shocked that after three decades of setbacks and scandals, the court failed to provide concrete evidence of Iran’s direct involvement or shed new light on the case.

“I would never rule Iran out, it’s certainly on the suspect list, but let’s do something concrete to rule it out,” said Joe Goldman, who co-authored a book about the Jewish Community Center attack investigative book, and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires that killed more than 20 people. “This will be a serious investigation the likes of which we have never seen.”

The court singled out senior Iranian officials and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard commanders, ruling that Iran carried out the bombings in response to Argentina’s cancellation of three contracts in the mid-1980s that supplied Tehran with nuclear technology. Its conclusions were based on classified intelligence reports.

Past investigations into the bombings have uncovered indictments not only against Iranian officials but also against two former Argentine presidents. In 2015, the lead prosecutor in the case was found mysteriously dead in his bathroom the day before he publicly claimed that top Argentine officials had conspired with Iran to cover up responsibility for the bombings. Witnesses have been threatened and bribed for years.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reduced the six-year sentence of an Argentine judge accused of paying $400,000 to a witness by two years and upheld other sentences against the former prosecutor.

Thursday’s ruling comes just months before the event’s 30th anniversary. Although the case has been dormant for years, Argentinian authorities made a major announcement on the anniversary of the bloody attack. Marking the 25th anniversary of the attack, Argentina designated Hezbollah a terrorist organization and froze the group’s financial assets.

Representatives of Argentina’s Jewish community, which has about 230,000 Jews, hailed Thursday’s court ruling as “historic and unique in Argentina.”

“It’s politically expedient,” added Jorge Nobrowicz, president of Argentinian Jewish organizations, noting Iran’s support for the militant group in the wake of Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Under scrutiny again.

But for relatives of the bombing victims, the ruling is just a cruel reminder of the pain they feel as their cases remain unresolved.

“We hope that one day there will be complete justice and truth,” said Memoria Activa, an association for the families of victims of the attacks. “These judges will stop profiting from our dead.”