MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: Ambassador Castro refers ironically to Foreign Office summons

“It is pretty much unbelievable that they (FCO) should complain when they have been failing to abide by international law for 50 years,” said Ms Castro

Argentine ambassador in London, Alicia Castro complained about being summoned to the Foreign Office over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands dispute revealing she asked the British official if it was “an expression of British humor or a political paradox”, since the UK has failed to comply with international law for the last five decades.

 “The British Foreign Office summoned me two days ago to express complaints against Argentina; it is pretty much unbelievable that they should complain when they have been failing to abide by international law for 50 years,” Ambassador Castro told a radio show in Buenos Aires.

“It's unbelievable they should recriminate us as if we were still a colony”, she added referring to the meeting with Foreign Office minister Simon Fraser.

On Wednesday, the UK summoned Ms Castro demanding explanations over Argentine president Cristina Fernandez, and other officials, criticisms of British plans to update defense capabilities in the Falklands, during the 2 April ceremony in Ushuaia recalling the 33rd anniversary of the South Atlantic conflict.

“I found it paradoxical they summoned me when it is the British government the one that violated more than 40 resolutions of the UN. The United Kingdom is increasing the militarization of the south of our continent and these recriminations coming when it has surfaced that Argentina might have been a victim of massive espionage is paradoxical,” the diplomat stated referring to recent documents revealed by ex-NSA agent Edward Snowden claiming Britain spied on Argentina between 2006 and 2011 over alleged fears Buenos Aires would seek to retake the disputed Islands.

In Ushuaia, on 2 April, Cristina Fernandez lashed out that the increase in the Falklands military defense was the result of a posture favorable to the “arms lobby”, as well as UK domestic issues because of the coming general election next month, when PM David Cameron's political future will be decided.

“They told me they regretted that Cristina announced an increase in the militarization of the Islands and were really surprised by her statements. The official pointed out that this was so especially because it was elections' time”, revealed Ms Castro.

On Thursday following the Foreign Office questioning of Castro, Argentina's deputy foreign minister Eduardo Zuain summoned British ambassador in Buenos Aires, John Freeman ”to demand explanations over the 'suggestive' silence from the British government following Edward Snowden’s disclosure published by The Intercept regarding acts of mass surveillance targeted against Argentina.”

“Ambassador Freeman was summoned over massive espionage, over Snowden’s revelations. He allegedly manipulated information with the aim of discrediting the government and its actions regarding Malvinas,” said Ms. Castro.

“For 50 years they have been failing to comply with the obligation that international right imposes, (which is) to sit down and dialogue and negotiate with Argentina,” Castro insisted considering UK’s stance in the sovereignty dispute “strictly isolated”, since “all the international community demands them to sit to dialogue with Argentina”.

On Thursday the Argentine government also filed criminal charges against oil companies in exploration operations Falklands' waters among which, Rockhopper Exploration, Premier Oil and Falkland Oil And Gas Limited, currently in a new drilling round in the South Atlantic British Overseas Territory.

“The Conservative government wants to stir the specter of the 1982 war and lift the figure of Margaret Thatcher for the coming election. You can say there's electoral speculation, otherwise it would be absurd” argued the Argentine ambassador.

“Argentina does not represent any war or military threat. What happened was the decision of a military dictatorship with the purpose of retaining power. The UK refuses to talk with Argentina, this is as if London would have refused to talk with the German Chancellor following the collapse of Nazism”, concluded Ambassador Castro.