As of yesterday, Argentina has a new foreign minister. His name is Héctor Timerman and he takes up his new job after having  been been Argentina’s ambassador in Washington since 2008. The relevance of his appointment for readers outside Argentina resides in its possible consequences for the AMIA case.

State prosecutor Alberto Nisman is seeking the extradition of several prominent Iranians, among them the current defense minister Ahmad Vahidi,  in connection with his investigations into the attack. The fugitives are the subject of Interpol Red Notices, de facto international capture orders. The government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner says it supports their capture and extradition and  both the president and her husband and predecessor Néstor Kirchner have said as much in their annual speechs at the UN General Assembly.

I have already expressed doubts here and here about just how serious the government is about obtaining the extradition of the suspects and I think Timerman’s appointment suggests that nothing much will change in this regard. On the contrary, the fact that Timerman is himself a Jew  will be mentioned over and over again by government supporters whenever the question of the AMIA investigation comes up. The unspoken subtext will be “How can you say that the government cares more about not upsetting the ayatollahs than catching the murders of 85 people, almost all of them Jews and Argentine citizens, in the center of Buenos Aires, when it has appointed a Jew as foreign minister? What more could it possibly be expected to do?

The best that can be hoped for from Timerman’s appointment is that it will inspire more spittle- flecked antisemitic raging about Jewish power from Iran. Many on the verkrappt wing of the international left  will  think and say the same thing but phrase it  in a way more acceptable to the chattering classes of the world.