Argentina’s foreign minister Pablo Quirno has added fuel to the fire to the rivalry between Argentina and England just days before the World Cup semifinal clash with a publication of an essay reasserting an Argentine claim on the Falkland Islands.
The 1982 conflict in the South Atlantic came just before an infamous meeting with Argentina in the 1986 World Cup, where Diego Maradona described his ‘Hand of God’ goal as ‘symbolic revenge’ for the defeat in the war that lasted 10-weeks, which cost the lives of 649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers.
Over 40 years on, players celebrated their win over Switzerland to book their semifinal with England with the chant: “For the Malvinas, For Diego, For Leo’s last one”.
Now, Quirno has gone one step further, hitting out at the UK’s ‘illegitimate occupation’ of the Falklands days before the World Cup clash, the Mail reports.
Writing in his newspaper column, Quirno wrote: ‘Time does not transform an illegitimate occupation into sovereignty. Nor will it divide the territorial unity of the Argentine Republic
‘Our claim will not be relinquished, resigned, or abandoned. The Falkland Islands are history, territory, sea, memory, and destiny. They are a promise between generations.
‘They are the voice of a nation that knows how to wait without giving up and knows how to demand without surrendering.’
Asked about the intervention, Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: ‘The Falkland islanders are British with a right to determine their own future.
‘The UK’s position is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their wish to remain a British overseas territory, and their right to self-determination is paramount.’
In 2013, the Falklands population voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory.