Sovereignty of Falklands rests with the UK, Britain tells the US
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) – Sovereignty over the Falkland Islands belongs to Britain, a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday, after an internal Pentagon email suggested a review of the U.S. position in the Falkland Islands as punishment for Britain’s conduct in 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, adding that the UK 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 Argentina’s unsuccessful bid to acquire them. Approximately 650 Argentinians and 255 British service personnel died before Argentina surrendered.
Starmer was asked whether he thought this was a US initiative. To pressure him to join the Iran war, his spokesman said: “He talked about it and also said that this pressure does not affect him, that he will always act in the national interest and this will always remain the case.”
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Andrew MacAskill in London; Additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires; Editing by William James and Matthew Lewis)
