Argentina escalated on Tuesday a row with Britain over oil drilling in the Falklands by ordering all ships heading to the disputed islands through its waters to seek permission from Buenos Aires first.
Argentine President Cristina Kirchner signed the decree, ratcheting up tensions between Argentina and Britain over Las Malvinas, the Spanish name for the islands they warred over in 1982 at the cost of almost 1,000 lives.
“All ships that wish to move between ports in continental Argentina and ports in the Malvinas islands, or that wish to cross Argentine territorial waters as they head to the islands” require prior permission, it said.
Kirchner’s chief of staff Anibal Fernandez left no doubt the move was intended to clamp down on shipping that might be helping Britain as it launches operations to explore the region’s oil and mineral reserves.
The decree seeks to achieve “not only a defense of Argentine sovereignty but also of all the resources” in the area, Fernandez explained, adding that a high-level permanent committee would be set up to monitor the shipping.
Anger in Argentina over the Falklands, which has bubbled below the surface for much of the last three decades, has threatened to boil over in recent months as Britain prepares to launch drilling operations.
Argentina has lodged a protest with London about drilling in the seabed around the windswept islands, which contains up to 60 billion barrels of oil, according to geological studies quoted in the British media.
A tug boat hauling a British exploration rig will arrive any day to start oil prospecting and the issue already came to a head earlier this month when Buenos Aires blocked a shipment of pipes it said was bound for the Falklands.
Argentine authorities boarded the foreign flagged “Thor Leader” in the southern port of Campana after learning it was about to take on a cargo of pipes used in the oil industry and apparently destined for the Falklands.
Buenos Aires is furious that London continues to skirt UN resolutions calling on both governments to renew a dialogue on the sovereignty of the Falklands.
“We wish to reaffirm the obligation to resolve the differences between Britain and us in the framework of international law and United Nations resolutions,” Kirchner said on Tuesday.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS