BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina said Tuesday it has asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for provisional measures to stop British-authorized oil activity off the Falkland Islands, escalating a dispute that The Guardian reported has pushed tensions over the islands to levels not seen since the 1982 war, according to Reuters and the Argentine broadcaster TN.
The request aims to prevent the United Kingdom from exploiting hydrocarbons on the continental shelf of the North Falklands Basin, where the Sea Lion project is being developed, and “seeks to preserve Argentina’s sovereign rights over its continental shelf and prevent activities authorized unilaterally and illegally by the United Kingdom,” the government said, Reuters reported. TN said the filing to the Hamburg-based tribunal came the day after a two-week deadline President Javier Milei gave Britain on Sept. 28 expired, and forms part of an arbitration case Argentina opened under Annex VII of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Britain, meanwhile, has written to Interpol urging it to treat Argentine “red notice” requests for the arrest of people involved in Sea Lion, including British nationals, as politically motivated, The Guardian reported. Interpol is understood to have replied that it would respect Article 3 of its constitution, which bars interventions of a political character, the paper said. “One would hope that Interpol wouldn’t necessarily take action,” said Andrea Clausen, chief executive of the Falkland Islands government.
Milei has opened criminal proceedings against Israeli company Navitas Petroleum and its British partner Rockhopper Exploration, the core companies in Sea Lion, and a bill before Argentina’s Congress would toughen penalties on companies and individuals working on Falklands resources without Argentine authorization. The companies have said they do not expect Argentina’s actions to derail the project, which The Guardian said could triple the islands’ GDP.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham told Parliament on Monday that he had raised “the clear and declared will of the islanders to remain British” with President Donald Trump, according to The Guardian. Argentina claims sovereignty over the islands, which it calls Las Malvinas, and dismisses a 2013 referendum in which 99.8% of voters chose to remain a British territory.
Sources: Reuters (via Devdiscourse), The Guardian, TN
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