An internal Pentagon email said that the White House is considering reviewing the U.S. position on the United Kingdom\u2019s claim to the Malvinas Islands, according to an anonymous U.S. official quoted by Reuters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Malvinas are a South Atlantic archipelago in the Argentine Sea occupied by the British in 1833, which Argentina claims as its own. On April 2, 1982, the Argentine dictatorship tried to seize the islands in a war that lasted 74 days and left a death toll of 649 Argentine and 255 British soldiers.<\/p>\n
An article published on Friday by the news agency said the decision was among a list of potential retaliations the U.S. would carry out to punish its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies for not supporting the recent war with Iran.<\/p>\n
The unnamed source said another potential decision was suspending Spain from NATO.<\/p>\n
Asked for comment, the British Embassy in Argentina directed the Herald to statements made by UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Falklands Islands are British \u2013 sovereignty rests with the UK, self-determination rests with the islanders,\u201d said Cooper, using the name the British gave the islands after the occupation. \u201cAs Stephen Doughty said in Parliament again this week, our commitment to the Falklands is unwavering,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, the Argentine Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno, answered Cooper\u2019s statement, saying that \u201cArgentina reaffirms its sovereign rights over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands, as well as the surrounding maritime areas.\u201d\u00a0 The post was shared by President Javier Milei.<\/p>\n
He added that \u201cthe occupation of 1833 was an act of force contrary to the international law of the time\u201d and said Argentina is willing to \u201cresume bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom to find a peaceful and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump, a close ally of Milei, has openly criticized his NATO allies for not helping open the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Pentagon\u2019s press secretary, Kingsley Wilson, said: \u201cDespite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us. The War Department will ensure that the president has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part.\u201d<\/p>\n
An email leak<\/p>\n
Diego Guelar, a politician and former Argentine ambassador to the U.S., said that the shift in position is a possibility. \u201cWith Trump, anything could happen,\u201d he told the Herald. \u201cBut it\u2019s better to wait,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Last year, U.S. ambassador to Argentina Peter Lamelas had said that the United States \u201crecognizes\u201d British administration, but that the U.S. holds a position of \u201cneutrality\u201d and \u201cdoes not recognize sovereignty over the islands for either Argentina or Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memo leaked to Reuters said that the White House could consider reassessing U.S. diplomatic support for longstanding European \u201cimperial possessions,\u201d such as the Malvinas. It also said that, during the U.S. attack on Iran, Spain and the U.K. had not granted access, basing and overflight rights (ABO), which it considered \u201cjust the absolute baseline for NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, Spanish President Pedro S\u00e1nchez downplayed the leak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t work with emails,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said to the press at an informal meeting with European leaders being held in Cyprus. \u201cWe base our actions on official documents and, eventually, the positions taken by the U.S. government. The Spanish government\u2019s position is clear: full cooperation with our allies, but always within the framework of international law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Editorial disclaimer: Although the UK refers to the territory as the \u201cFalkland Islands,\u201d Argentina strongly contests this name. The Buenos Aires Herald uses \u201cMalvinas\u201d to refer to the islands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An internal Pentagon email said that the White House is considering reviewing the U.S. position on the United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[361,362,10061,2016,10062,5,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-22087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-javier-milei","10":"tag-malvinas","11":"tag-nato","12":"tag-pablo-quirno","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116467516155666729","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}