President of Argentina Javier Milei signed a decree this weekend designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) Quds Force a terrorist organization.
The Quds force is the foreign branch of the IRGC is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, tasked with conducting foreign terrorist activity outside of Iran and destabilizing foreign governments. Milei’s decree also specifically targeted 13 individuals linked to the terrorist organization.
The designation, signed by Milei on Saturday, January 17, adds the Quds Force and the 13 linked individuals to Argentina’s Public Registry of Persons and Entities Linked to Acts of Terrorism and its Financing (RePET), making them subject to financial penalties and operational restrictions designed to limit their capacity to act. The designation also prevents them from using the Argentine financial system to support their activities.
In an official presidential statement, the Argentine government stressed that the decision was promoted by President Milei in coordination with the Foreign, National Security, Justice Ministries and the Argentine Intelligence Secretariat.
The Argentine government stressed that the South American nation was victim of the Quds Force’s terrorist actions through both terrorist attacks against Jewish targets in Buenos Aires during the 1990s: the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA). The 1994 AMIA bombing, which left 85 dead and hundreds injured, is the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Argentina and was the deadliest in the Western Hemisphere prior to September 11, 2001.
On April 2024, nearly 30 years since the AMIA bombing, Argentine courts ruled to hold Iran and its terror proxy, Hezbollah, responsible for both terrorist attacks. On that same month, Argentina requested the arrest of former Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who Argentine courts identified as one of the key orchestrators of both attacks. Vahidi was appointed as IRGC’s deputy commander-in-chief on December 2025.
“It should be noted that Ahmad Vahidi, commander of the Quds Force between 1989 and 1998, is implicated in the AMIA bombing and is the subject of an INTERPOL red notice. Despite this, the Iranian regime has not only failed to cooperate with his prosecution but has promoted him, currently appointing him as deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This individual is already included in the RePET,” the Argentine government’s statement read.
“The President of the Nation remains unwavering in his commitment to recognize terrorists for what they are, as he has already done with Hamas, the Cartel of the Suns, and, more recently, with the Lebanese, Egyptian, and Jordanian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood,” the statement continued. “This government is determined to reverse the decline of recent decades and align itself with Western civilization, which respects individual rights and its institutions, while condemning and fighting head-on those who seek to destroy it.”
The U.S. State Department welcomed President Milei’s decision and detailed in a brief social media statement that, “as a key arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force has fueled violence across the Middle East and beyond while repressing its own people at home.”
“This important step strengthens the global effort to counter Iranian-backed terrorism and support the Iranian people,” the statement concluded.
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Similarly, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar commended the Quds Force terrorist designation, describing it as a “significant step” that strengthens the international front against Iranian terrorism and honors the victims of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of the AMIA building.
Sa’ar stressed that more countries should “follow Argentina’s example and call these terror organizations by their names.”
The Argentine newspaper La Nación reported on Monday morning that Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei condemned the announcement, deeming it “unacceptable” and threatening Argentina, claiming that the country “will undoubtedly receive an appropriate response” from the Islamic regime.
Upon taking office in December, President Javier Milei began to realign Argentina’s foreign policy with the United States and Israel as Argentina’s top allies. Milei’s policies mark a stark contrast from foreign policies implemented by past socialist administrations who, over the course of nearly two decades, pushed Argentina towards Iran and other regimes such as China, Russia, Cuba, and Venezuela.
La Nación noted that Milei signed the decree hours before a new anniversary of the passing of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died of a gunshot wound on January 18, 2015, hours before he was slated to give testimony to Congress as part of his investigation against convicted former socialist president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on allegations that she helped cover up Iran’s role in the AMIA bombing attack in exchange for beneficial trade deals.
Fernández de Kirchner, presently serving a six-year house arrest sentence on corruption charges, signed a widely-panned “memorandum of understanding” with the Iranian regime in 2013 that made the rogue Islamic regime a participant in the AMIA bombing investigation, essentially allowing Iran to investigate itself. Nisman’s death was ruled a “suicide.” The Argentine Presidency has asserted through past statements in 2024 and 2025 that Nisman was murdered.
While the AMIA cover-up investigations continued in the years after Nisman’s death, the case against Fernández de Kirchner was controversially dismissed in 2021.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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