MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK press reacts to Obama’s support for Argentina in the Malvinas Islands issue

President Obama toasting with Queen Elizabeth at the royal banquet

The UK press reacted to the US President Obama administration support of an Argentine inspired Organization of American States, OAS, unanimous declaration on the Falklands/Malvinas question that calls for sovereignty negotiations.

This writes The Telegraph, comes in contrast with the effusive praise from President Obama for the Special Relationship with Britain when he recently visited London and means that “the Obama administration continues to slap Britain in the face over the highly sensitive Falklands issue”.

This week the OAS General Assembly at its meeting in San Salvador passed by unanimous consent, and Washington signed, a “draft declaration on the question of the Malvinas Islands”.

“In doing so, the United States sided not only with Buenos Aires, but also with a number of anti-American regimes including Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Daniel Ortega’s Nicaragua”, said The Telegraph.

The declaration which calls for Argentina and Great Britain negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands is a position which London has long viewed as completely unacceptable and “also comes in the wake of increasing aggression by the Kirchner regime in the past 18 months, including threats to blockade British shipping in the South Atlantic”.

The declaration has become a regular stamp on all OAS declarations and for that matter from all those regional and international forums where Argentina peddles support for the Malvinas Islands question.

The declaration says that having heard the presentation by Argentina, the OAS General Assembly welcomes the reaffirmation of the will of the Argentine Government to continue exploring all possible avenues towards a peaceful settlement of the dispute and its constructive approach towards the inhabitants of the Malvinas Islands.

It reaffirms the need for the Governments of Argentina and the UK to resume, as soon as possible, negotiations on the sovereignty dispute, in order to find a peaceful solution to this protracted controversy.

Finally it decides to continue to examine the Question of the Malvinas Islands at its subsequent sessions until a definitive settlement has been reached thereon.

The Telegraph sums up the day with a quote from former PM Margaret Thatcher to Parliament, and stating the sovereignty of the Islands is not a matter for negotiation and “Britain will never give in to threats from Argentina or its tyrannical allies in places such as Venezuela”.

The White House recently declared that Britain remains America’s most important ally: “now it should live up to its words by supporting Washington’s closest friend and partner on matters of vital British interest, including the future of British subjects living in the South Atlantic, whose only wish is to remain free under the protection of the Union Jack”.