Escalating Falklands oil dispute goes to UN

[skylinedrive]

Crisises and international tensions like that at hand are always full of "if's" and "when's"
Let's hope the levelheaded guys will prevail and there won't be another conflict nobody will gain anything from!

On a side note: You mentioned the hype about the Gurkha's night attack!

Since the 1982 war all over South America "gurkha" is used to describe real nasty and brutal people....so big was the psychologocal impact of those fine combat troops on the Argentinian morale!!!!!

[The Reaper]

The Brits have now had enough time to upgrade their ADA systems, anti-ship systems, intel networks, and to reinforce their ground, air, and naval forces.

Unless someone in the Argentine military has hit the lottery and upgraded their capabilities recently, I do not think they can attack and seize the islands successfully.

I do think that they could attack oil platforms and shipping in the area with some degree of success.

TR

[Pete]

Hillary Clinton steps into Falklands row after 'feeble' Obama fails to back Britain in stand-off with Argentina

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0gnCczEl5

"...........Argentina already has the support of Latin America and the Caribbean in the row with Britain, and regional leaders are expected to press the case with Mrs Clinton............"

Seems like all of the President's friends are on the side of Argentina. I wonder who gets thrown under the bus this time?

[nmap]

Originally Posted by Pete

Seems like all of the President's friends are on the side of Argentina. I wonder who gets thrown under the bus this time?

As I believe you hinted earlier, the U.K.

The U.K already has other problems, with the Wall Street Journal posting hints of a Sterling crisis. Plus, it seems likely that the individual who sent back the Churchill sculpture is not an Anglophile.

[skylinedrive]

I guess Gordon Brown has a reason to worry now

US 'ready to help' on Falklands
The US is ready to help Britain and Argentina resolve their dispute over the Falkland Islands, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which it calls the Malvinas.

It has been angered by the UK's decision to begin drilling for oil under a seabed off the islands.

Mrs Clinton said the row should be resolved between the two, but "if we can be of any help in facilitating such an effort, we stand ready to do so".

Ms Clinton spoke before she met Argentine President Cristina Fernandez as part of a tour of Latin America.

She is also due to visit Chile - reeling from a massive earthquake which killed more than 700 people - Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

The AP news agency reported that at the meeting, Argentina asked for US help in resolving the dispute.

"What we have requested is mediation as a friendly country of both Argentina and the United Kingdom," it quoted Ms Fernandez as saying.

After the meeting, Mrs Clinton agreed on the need for talks but did not spell out what the US role might be.

"We would like to see Argentina and the UK sit down and resolve the issues between them in a peaceful and productive way," she said.

"We cannot make either one do so."

Diplomatic offensive

Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana last week claimed that by drilling in the disputed waters, Britain was a committing a unilateral act contrary to international law.

He asked United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to bring the UK into talks over the sovereignty of the islands.

The UK government says the islands have a "legitimate right" to develop an oil industry within their waters.

Britain has exercised sovereignty in the Falklands since 1833. The islanders are almost all of British descent.

Argentina says it has a right to the islands because it inherited them from the Spanish crown in the early 1800s.

It invaded the islands in 1982, prompting the UK to seize back control in a seven-week war that claimed the lives of 649 Argentine and 255 British service personnel.

The current Argentine government has ruled out any military action over the islands, but is stepping up a diplomatic offensive to try to pressure London into negotiations.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ws/8544634.stm

Published: 2010/03/02 02:41:38 GMT

© BBC MMX

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[skylinedrive]

Giles Whittell, Michael Evans and Catherine Philp, Washington
British diplomats have expressed serious concerns to the US State Department at least three times over Washington’s response to the latest dispute over the Falkland Islands, The Times has learnt.

In telephone calls and meetings, senior diplomats and specialists were forced to restate Britain’s position on sovereignty over the islands and seek clarification of the US position after a State Department spokesman in February answered a question about the Falklands by saying: “Or the Malvinas, depending on how you see it.”

British anger over the Obama Administration’s apparent indifference to the issue mounted when Hillary Clinton endorsed President Fernández de Kirchner’s call for talks on sovereignty while she was in Buenos Aires last week, State Department sources said.

The new details of British complaints emerged as influential conservatives in Washington described the Administration’s handling of the dispute as offensive, ignorant and a reflection of a lack of enthusiasm for the idea of a special relationship between the two countries.

British officials in Washington say publicly that the Falklands issue has been raised only in “friendly conversations in the course of normal business” between the Embassy and the Administration. Privately, however, there is a sense that the Obama Administration has not taken on board British sensibilities and that it has been too dismissive of points raised in London. Officials said that several phone calls were made and an e-mail was sent after the State Department spokesman called the islands the Malvinas.

Asked why the US chose to remain neutral despite Britain’s longstanding claims, the spokesman twice avoided calling them the Falklands, first saying “whatever you want to call them” and then using the Argentine name. US sources described the calls and meetings as demarches — in diplomatic parlance, formal protests. A British official insisted that “nobody’s been writing any formal letters”, adding that Britain was “genuinely quite relaxed” about the American position.

The same cannot be said of President Obama’s critics in Washington. The Pentagon official primarily responsible for providing the British Forces “with whatever they needed” in the Falklands campaign in 1982 yesterday accused the Administration of insulting Britain. Richard Perle, then assistant Secretary for Defence said: “I think using the description Malvinas is offensive to British interests.”

Yesterday David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, who has made much of his close personal relationship with Mrs Clinton, flew to Boston, where he will give a speech today on Afghanistan. Washington is not on his itinerary and he will return to London without meeting his opposite number.

The State Department denied last night any friction with “our British friends” over the Falklands but stood by everything Mrs Clinton said in her meeting with Mrs Kirchner.

The Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said: “The Secretary said we stand ready to help if that is desired.” Mr Crowley acknowledged “conversations” with British officials over the dispute with Argentina but said that he was not aware of ill-feeling.

What's in a name?

Falkland Islands From Falkland Sound, the channel between the two main islands, which was named in 1690 by John Strong, a British mariner, after his patron Anthony Cary, Fifth Viscount Falkland

Islas Malvinas The Spanish name is derived from the French name, Îles Malouines, given to the islands by Louis Antoine de Bougainville in 1764 after the first known settlers — mariners and fishermen from Saint-Malo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7055925.ece