Argentina Accuses Britain Of Deploying Nuclear Weapons Near Falklands

RT
February 11, 2012

UK miss-isles: Argentina fears nukes on Falklands

HMS Vanguard ballistic missile submarine

Argentina’s foreign minister has accused the UK of deploying nuclear weapons near the disputed Falkland Islands, militarizing the South Atlantic.

Hector Timerman voiced the accusation as he lodged a formal protest with the UN on Friday. He said Argentina had intelligence that Britain had deployed a Vanguard class submarine in the area.

“Thus far the UK refuses to say whether it is true or not,” he told a journalists in New York. “Are there nuclear weapons or are there not? The information Argentina has is that there are nuclear weapons.”

Britain’s ambassador to the UN Mark Grant would not officially comment on the disposition of British submarines, but called Argentinean allegations of UK’s militarization “manifestly absurd.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that he was concerned with the escalating row between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Earlier the British media reported that UK had deployed a Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered submarine armed only with conventional weapons to the region.

The tension between the two countries has surged in the run-up to the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War. Back in April 1982, Argentina tried to take control of the islands, which it calls the Malvinas and claims as its rightful territory. Britain repelled the attack with military force. More than 900 people were killed in the hostilities.

The current row has been brewing since at least 2010, when British companies started drilling for oil in the region. Argentina has put diplomatic and commercial pressure on the islands’ administration. Buenos Aires recently convinced Latin American countries no ban ships bearing the Falkland Islands flag from their ports, troubling their supply logistics.

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Daily Telegraph
February 11, 2012

Argentina accuses Britain of sending nuclear missiles to Falklands

The South American country’s foreign minister claimed that Trident nuclear missiles were being carried on board a submarine deployed to the region by the Royal Navy.

It comes as tensions continue to rise over the islands, which are claimed by the Argentinians as their territory.

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Hector Timerman, the Argentinian foreign minister, accused the British of sending the nuclear submarine into a nuclear-free zone and lodged a formal protest at the United Nations.

He said Britain was “militarising the region” after the Royal Navy sent one of its most advanced warship to the islands, and as Prince William enters the second week of his six-week tour of duty there as an RAF search and rescue pilot.

The Royal Navy has not confirmed the presence of any submarine near the Falklands, but was reported to have sent a Trafalgar-class vessel, which cannot carry nuclear weapons.

Mr Timerman, however, insisted that a Vanguard-class submarine, which carries Trident nuclear missiles, was operating in the region.

He produced maps and photographs to back up his claims, stating that the nuclear submarine posed a threat to regional security.

“Argentina has information that within the framework of the recent British deployment in the Malvinas Islands they sent a nuclear submarine…to transport nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic,” said Mr Timerman, at a press conference in New York.

“Thus far the UK refuses to say whether it is true or not. Are there nuclear weapons or are there not?

“The information Argentina has is that there are these nuclear weapons.”

He said the deployment of nuclear arms in the region would violate the Treaty of Tlatelolco for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, designed to create a nuclear-free zone in the region.

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Mr Timerman displayed a map showing UK bases across the South Atlantic between South America and Africa, pointing out that the “Empire’s capital” was 4,000 miles away.

He went on to show a series of photographs of what he claimed were state-of-the-art war ships, planes and a nuclear submarine he said was Vanguard, flagship of the Vanguard fleet which carries Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent.

He also produced aerial shots of military bases and two runways in the Falkland Islands. The foreign minister also claimed that the British defence budget had been cut in every area except the South Atlantic.

Mr Timerman said Britain was using an “unjustified defence of self-determination” to maintain a military base on the Falklands, which allowed it to dominate the Atlantic.

He criticised David Cameron for recently accusing Argentina of acting like “colonialists,” saying: “It is perhaps the last refuge of a declining power.
“It is the last ocean that is controlled by the United Kingdom – Britannia rules only the South Atlantic.

“Argentina cannot lose a territory because there is a group that chooses to live a different fate. This population came after the invasion. This is not an indigenous population.

“The UK is using the unjust defence of self-determination for 2,500 inhabitants as an excuse to become a military base.”

Quoting John Lennon, who he described as the great musician, poet singer, he urged the British Government to “give peace a chance.”

But the claims were dismissed by the British ambassador to the United Nations at his own press conference in New York.

Sir Mark Lyall Grant said “We do not comment on the disposition of nuclear weapons, submarines.”

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“We are responsible for the security of the Falkland Islands and we will defend that robustly,” he said.

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Tensions over the Falklands – which Argentina refer to as Las Malvinas – have been further fuelled by the discovery of possible oilfields in its territorial waters.

And the debate became increasingly heated in recent days after Mrs Kirchner gave a speech in which she claimed that UK “militarism…implies a grave risk for international security…”

Sir Mark said: “It is not for Argentina and the UK to discuss the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands over the heads of the people who live there, some of whom have been there for over 200 years.”

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Xinhua News Agency
February 11, 2012

Argentina, Britain spat over disputed islets at UN headquarters

UNITED NATIONS: Senior diplomats from Argentina and Britain on Friday traded accusations over the contested Malvinas Islands (called by Britain as Falkland Islands) at separate press conferences held at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who gave the first press conference, urged Britain to comply with UN resolutions, sit down at the negotiating table and “refrain from this military escalation that they are carrying out in the South Atlantic with the introduction of the latest generation of warships and warplanes, and dispatching a nuclear submarine with the capacity to unload nuclear weapons.”

The islands off Argentina’s eastern coast, called the Falklands by the British and the Malvinas by Argentineans, have been at the center of the decades-old feud between the two countries.

Tensions have been on the rise between Britain and Argentina as the former announced recently that it would explore for oil in the surrounding waters, as the 30th anniversary of a 1982 war that saw Argentina defeated by Britain is approaching,

Timerman said Argentina firmly believes “that problems between countries must be resolved in a peaceful manner, on (the) basis of peaceful dialogue” and that all parties should “refrain from using arms.”

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On Tuesday, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez accused Britain of militarizing the Southern Atlantic, vowing to seek UN help to remove British troops from the region.

The president said it is disturbing that Britain maintains a military presence in the waters around the islands and the British deployment risks triggering war games in the region.

She said her government would present once again its arguments to the UN De-colonizing Committee in June, and expressed the belief that with these arguments the sovereignty of the Malvinas would be given to Argentina.