Falklands sovereignty rests with UK, Starmer tells US

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman said sovereignty of the Falkland Islands belonged to Britain, following an internal email in which the Pentagon suggested a review of the US position on the Falkland Islands as punishment for Britain’s stance on the Iran war.

“We couldn’t be clearer about the UK’s position on the Falkland Islands. This has been going on for a long time, it hasn’t changed,” the spokesman told reporters.

“Sovereignty remains with the United Kingdom and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount. This has been and will remain our consistent position,” the spokesman said. He added that Britain had expressed this position “clearly and consistently to successive US administrations”.

The Pentagon email outlined options for punishing NATO allies the United States believed did not support U.S. operations in the Iran war; this includes a reassessment of US diplomatic support for long-standing European “imperial possessions” such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno responded to the reports by reiterating his country’s desire to restart bilateral negotiations for a “peaceful and definitive solution.”

Quirno described the current situation of the islands, sometimes called the Malvinas, as a “colonial situation” and expressed gratitude for international support for Argentina’s claims.

“By history, by right, and by belief: the Malvinas are Argentine,” Quirno said in a post on X.

Britain and Argentina fought a brief war over the islands in 1982, following a failed attempt by Argentina to take them. Approximately 650 Argentinians and 255 British service personnel died before Argentina surrendered.

Asked if Starmer thought this was an attempt by the US to pressure him into joining the Iran war, his spokesman said: “He talked about that and he also talked about how that pressure did not affect him and he will always act in the national interest and that will always remain that way.”