Sean Penn backs Argentina over Falkland Islands

PA/Guardian
February 14, 2012

Penn met Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in Buenos Aires and said: “It’s necessary that these diplomatic talks happen between the United Kingdom and Argentina. I think that the world today is not going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology.”

Last week British officials dismissed claims it was “militarising” the situation in the South Atlantic by deploying nuclear weapons nearby. Argentina said it had intelligence that a Vanguard submarine had been sent to the area, and demanded to know whether it was carrying warheads.

“Thus far the UK refuses to say whether it is true or not,” said the foreign minister, Hector Timerman. “Are there nuclear weapons or are there not? The information Argentina has is that there are these nuclear weapons.”

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. But Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, said the idea that the UK was militarising the situation was “manifestly absurd”.

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This article was posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 8:35 am

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