MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Irizar incident: Argentina insists in original position.

Last Wednesday the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially replied to Britain's non satisfaction with the March 15/16 naval icebreaker “Almirante Irizar” “policing” incident in Falkland Islands exclusive jurisdiction waters.

Argentina basically reiterated the original verbal explanation given in March to the Foreign Office by Argentine Ambassador in London, Federico Mirre insisting in the legitimacy of the icebreaker activities since they took place in "Argentina's exclusive economic zone" and they involved "navigational safety tasks and identification of fishing vessels, given the need to extreme conservation measures in the current Illex squid season"

Further on the Argentine reply indicates its willingness to resume "sovereignty talks", its commitment with provisional agreements reached and its willingness to continue cooperating, under the sovereignty formula, in the conservation of fisheries resources in the South Atlantic.

Last March 15/16, the "Irizar" sailed during 24 hours in the Falklands Outer Conservation Zone and Interim Conservation Zone and together with a helicopter from the vessel challenged several fishing vessels operating in the area to identify.

Apparently the reply was drafted by Foreign Affairs Minister Rafael Bielsa and Foreign Policy Secretary Jorge Taiana and later consulted with President Nestor Kirchner.

"The idea was to reply to the British but without escalating the incident", according to Argentine unidentified diplomatic sources, reported Clarín.