Argentina formally designated the Hamas jihadist group an international terrorist organization over the weekend, joining countries such as the United States, the European Union, Australia, and Paraguay.
The designation, as per Argentine law, added Hamas to Argentina’s Public Registry of Persons and Entities Linked to Acts of Terrorism and its Financing (RePET), allowing the government to freeze the assets of individuals or groups who are directly or indirectly linked to the terrorist organization.
Upon taking office in December, President Javier Milei began to realign Argentina’s foreign policy – which, after nearly two decades of socialist administrations, had been aligned with those of rogue regimes, such as China, Russia, and Iran. The shift in foreign policy led by Milei has seen the South American nation establish the United States and Israel as its top allies.
Milei also enthusiastically offered Argentina’s support to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 terrorist attack and has continuously supported Israel’s right to self defense against the jihadist terrorist group. Milei initially expressed his intention to have Hamas declared a terrorist organization in February, shortly before his first official visit to Israel.
The Argentine presidency made the announcement of Hamas’s designation in a press note released late Friday evening, explaining that Hamas claimed responsibility for the October 7 attack on Israel in addition to an extensive history of terrorist attacks in its name.
The statement also mentioned Hamas’s ties to the Islamic regime of Iran, which through the Hezbollah Shiite jihadist organization was found responsible by an Argentine court in April for both the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA). The latter was the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the Western Hemisphere prior to September 11, 2001, leaving 85 dead and hundreds injured.
Thursday, July 18, will mark the 30th anniversary of the AMIA bombing.
“President Javier Milei has an unwavering commitment to recognize terrorists for what they are. This is the first time there is political will to do so,” the statement read.
“This Government has reiterated on multiple occasions its conviction that Argentina should return to the Western civilization, respectful of individual rights and its institutions. For this reason, it is inadmissible that those who attack against it are not declared as what they are: terrorists,” the statement concluded.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Milei for the Argentine government’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization in a brief message published on social media.
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Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News“The decision represents moral clarity and leadership, and sets an example to all countries in South America and around the world who have yet to make clear their condemnation of Hamas’s brutal and cruel terror as they continue to attack Israel and hold 120 of our sons and daughters hostage,” the message, written in English, read.
The message concluded by thanking Milei in Spanish, describing him as a “true friend of Israel.”
Hamas reportedly condemned the Argentine government’s decision in a statement published on social media channels and sent to media outlets. The jihadist terrorist organization demanded that the Argentine government “retract its decision, accusing it of having a “flagrant bias” and claiming that the South American nation is justifying an “ethnic cleansing” allegedly committed by “neo-Nazis” in Gaza.
“As we consider erroneous and biased towards the Nazi occupation this unjust decision, which is before the International Court of Justice accused of committing genocide against our Palestinian people, we call on the Argentine government to retract, to refrain from aligning itself with the narrative of the criminal Zionist occupation, and to side with the logic of justice and the right of peoples to freedom and self-determination,” the statement read.
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Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Stephanie Hallett via StoryfulChristian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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