“We are skeptical that such a just solution can be found in the arrangement announced,” State Department spokesperson Peter Velasco told the Washington Free Beacon. “Iran’s record of cooperation with international authorities is profoundly deficient, which underlines the concern that its engagement on this matter be focused on achieving justice promptly.”

This was a far stronger statement than the one given by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland at Monday’s press briefing.

“We all obviously have all wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice, so if the Argentine government thinks this might take us closer to that, then we’ll have to—we’ll have to see,” said Nuland.

The clarification comes on the same day a top Israeli foreign ministry official blasted the Iranian-Argentine “truth commission” during a meeting with the Ambassador of Argentina to Israel today.

Israel’s deputy director-general for Latin America Itzhak Shoham “conveyed Israel’s astonishment and disappointment at the Argentinean government’s decision to collaborate with Iran after the latter’s responsibility for the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Center was exposed by the investigation conducted by the Argentinean authorities themselves,” according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem.

Shoham also “protested the unacceptable attitude of the Argentinean government towards Israel since the beginning of contacts between Buenos Aires and Tehran.” According to the MFA, Argentina has not responded to Israeli requests for information about its new collaboration with Iran.

The newly formed “truth commission” will be composed of jurists appointed by Argentina and Iran. It will investigate the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85. Several former Iranian officials are wanted by Interpol in connection with the attack, which is suspected to have been planned by Iran and carried out by terrorist group Hezbollah.

“A lack of resolve in dealing with terrorism sends a message of weakness,” said Shoham in a statement. “Had Argentina dealt resolutely with the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy, the 1994 AMIA bombing might not have happened.”

Several Iranian officials are currently wanted by Interpol in connection to the bombing, which killed 85 and injured hundreds more.

The commission will be made up of five jointly chosen jurists. It will review evidence against the Iranians on the Interpol red notice list and send its findings to the international police organization.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, who was recently photographed posing in a Viet Cong spider hole and holding hands with Fidel Castro, praised the establishment of the Truth Commission as “historic” on Twitter.

“Argentina reaffirms once again its unconditional respect for international law and unwaivable commitment to dialogue as the only mechanism for resolution of conflicts between countries,” said Kirchner, calling it the “only path to global security.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department was optimistic when asked about the Truth Commission.

“I think—you know, we all obviously have all wanted to see the perpetrators brought to justice, so if the Argentine government thinks this might take us closer to that, then we’ll have to—we’ll have to see,” said spokesperson Victoria Nuland at the State Department press briefing today.

However, Argentina’s decision has drawn outrage from Israel and Jewish community leaders, who see it as an effort to shield Iran from justice.

“We warned the Argentinians only a short while ago not to fall into the trap that the Iranians will set up for them,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor.

“We are stunned by this news item and we will want to receive from the Argentine government a complete picture as to what was agreed upon because this entire affair affects Israel directly.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) also had strong criticism for the commission.

“[President Kirchner] laid out a series of rationales for why this was positive and historic,” said ADL director of international affairs Michael Salberg. “We certainly think it’s historic, but we find it to be anything but positive.”

“It establishes an unprecedented commission that will by its very nature further delay achieving justice in this case,” Salberg said. “And the further delay of achieving justice means that justice remains denied to the victims and the families of the victims.”

Kirchner’s decision to form a Truth Commission with Iran is the latest sign that her administration is allying itself with anti-American forces in the region. Argentina closed arms deals with China and Venezuela under Kirchner and escalated an aggressive fight with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

“The Kirchner administration has steadily moved closer to the ‘Bolivarian’ bloc of nations led by [Hugo] Chávez [in Venezuela] and including Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua,” wrote Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, in a recent report on the shifting Kirchner government.

Previously, the Kirchner administration riled the Israeli government and Jewish leaders by conducting negotiations with Iranian officials indicted in the 1994 bombing. Iran has long professed its innocence in the attack, dismissing the allegations as a “Zionist plot.”

Kirchner playfully peeks her head out of one of the spiderholes in one photo. She sits cross-legged and grinning outside the tunnel, dressed in guerrilla-style fatigues, in another.

Kirchner’s trip to Vietnam is the latest in a string of moves that have seen Argentina’s increasingly isolated and belligerent government cozying up with authoritarian states. Argentina has cut arms deals with China and Venezuela under Kirchner in just the last year, and continues to escalate a war of words with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

presidencia.gov.ar

Kirchner flew to Southeast Asia on a rented plane out of fear her presidential jet might be seized by creditors as an Argentine naval vessel recently was in Ghana. The seizure of the Argentine Naval vessel Libertad was a humiliation for the Kirchner government, which continues to deal with fallout from the country’s 2001 debt default.

The government in Vietnam is one of the most repressive in the world. The ruling party “suppresses virtually all forms of political dissent,” according to Human Rights Watch.

Fourteen free speech activists were convicted earlier this month of “subversion of authorities” and sentenced to up to 13 years in prison in what has been described as a “sham trial.”

Kirchner arrived in Vietnam after a visit to Cuba where she posed for pictures with the enfeebled leader of that country’s Communist revolution Fidel Castro.

Fidel Castro and Cristina Kirchner / casarosada.gov.ar