“Argentina will run Falklands within 20 years”

LONDON Argentina expects to remove the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) from British control within 20 years, Argentina’s FM Hector Timerman told the Independent newspaper. Timerman, who is visiting London, said the tide of international opinion was against Great Britain and pointedly ruled out any need to persuade the islands’ 3,000 British citizens of his country’s claim on “Las Malvinas”. “Argentina will run Falklands within 20 years” He accused Britain of militarizing the South Atlantic in a grab for oil and natural resources. Timerman last week rejected the offer of talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague after he insisted that representatives of the Falklands’ government should also be present. The Argentinean minister refused to discuss whether the diplomatic package he wants to offer Hague would include a proposal for joint sovereignty and said he believed Britain would soon be forced to reach an agreement satisfying his country’s requirements on the islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina. “I don’t think it will take another 20 years. I think that the world is going through a process of understanding more and more that this is a colonial issue, an issue of colonialism... We don’t support the occupation of foreign lands, and the Malvinas case is the occupation of a foreign land,” Timerman was quoted as saying. He stressed that Argentina would “respect the rights” of the Falklanders but insisted the country had no need to persuade the islanders of the rectitude of its claims on their territory. “I don’t have to persuade them. The United Nations says there is a conflict between Great Britain and Argentina. I don’t have to persuade anybody. We have to apply international law and accept the resolutions; if not the UN becomes a body that is only useful when it backs the powerful,” the Argentina’s foreign minister stated. He brushed aside any significance in the referendum scheduled next month by the Port Stanley government to ask Falklanders if they wish to remain British, adding that Argentina intended to accommodate the “interests but not the wishes” of its population. “There is a difference between interests and wishes. The people living in the Malvinas will have their interests taken into consideration, but not their wishes. That is what the UN has said, many times,” Timerman noted. Anglo-Argentine relations are at their lowest ebb for many years following the passing last year of the 20th anniversary of the Falklands War in 1982, which saw the deaths of 258 British soldiers and 649 Argentineans after a naval task force was sent 8,000 miles across the Atlantic to expel an Argentine invasion, writes The Independent. The discovery of oil and an announcement last month that a liquid gas find off the islands is also commercially viable has exacerbated tensions between the two countries, the paper has reported. Tanjug

“Argentina will run Falklands within 20 years”

He accused Britain of militarizing the South Atlantic in a grab for oil and natural resources.

Timerman last week rejected the offer of talks with British Foreign Secretary William Hague after he insisted that representatives of the Falklands’ government should also be present.

The Argentinean minister refused to discuss whether the diplomatic package he wants to offer Hague would include a proposal for joint sovereignty and said he believed Britain would soon be forced to reach an agreement satisfying his country’s requirements on the islands, known as the Malvinas in Argentina.

“I don’t think it will take another 20 years. I think that the world is going through a process of understanding more and more that this is a colonial issue, an issue of colonialism... We don’t support the occupation of foreign lands, and the Malvinas case is the occupation of a foreign land,” Timerman was quoted as saying.

He stressed that Argentina would “respect the rights” of the Falklanders but insisted the country had no need to persuade the islanders of the rectitude of its claims on their territory.

“I don’t have to persuade them. The United Nations says there is a conflict between Great Britain and Argentina. I don’t have to persuade anybody. We have to apply international law and accept the resolutions; if not the UN becomes a body that is only useful when it backs the powerful,” the Argentina’s foreign minister stated.

He brushed aside any significance in the referendum scheduled next month by the Port Stanley government to ask Falklanders if they wish to remain British, adding that Argentina intended to accommodate the “interests but not the wishes” of its population.

“There is a difference between interests and wishes. The people living in the Malvinas will have their interests taken into consideration, but not their wishes. That is what the UN has said, many times,” Timerman noted.

Anglo-Argentine relations are at their lowest ebb for many years following the passing last year of the 20th anniversary of the Falklands War in 1982, which saw the deaths of 258 British soldiers and 649 Argentineans after a naval task force was sent 8,000 miles across the Atlantic to expel an Argentine invasion, writes The Independent.

The discovery of oil and an announcement last month that a liquid gas find off the islands is also commercially viable has exacerbated tensions between the two countries, the paper has reported.