{"id":801367,"date":"2026-10-13T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801367\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:40:11","slug":"uk-asks-interpol-to-reject-argentinas-politically-motivated-requests-for-falklands-oil-arrests-falkland-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801367\/","title":{"rendered":"UK asks Interpol to reject Argentina\u2019s \u2018politically motivated\u2019 requests for Falklands oil arrests | Falkland Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina\u2019s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in a large oil project off the Falkland Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With tensions over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory reaching levels not seen since the war with Argentina<\/a> in 1982, UK officials have sought urgent assurances from the international organisation.<\/p>\n

A letter has been sent to Interpol\u2019s headquarters in Lyon arguing that \u201cred notice\u201d requests from Argentina for the arrest of such individuals, including British nationals, should be seen as politically motivated.<\/p>\n

It is understood that the UK government is concerned by what sources suggested was an attempt to bully people and companies out of working in the Falklands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The chief executive of the Falkland Islands, Dr Andrea Clausen, in the room where Argentinian forces surrendered. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

An oil project known as Sea Lion in the north Falklands basin in the south Atlantic has the potential to triple the Falklands\u2019 GDP but Argentina\u2019s president, Javier Milei<\/a>, has vowed to block it. Argentina\u2019s strategy includes attempts to criminalise those involved in Sea Lion and deter other investors.<\/p>\n

In its letter, the UK government has urged Interpol to be cautious in its handling of Argentinian requests for detentions, it is understood.<\/p>\n

Andrea Clausen, the chief executive of the Falklands government, confirmed that the use of Interpol by Argentina was a threat but added: \u201cOne would hope that Interpol wouldn\u2019t necessarily take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cCertainly those of us who have an interest have had a look at certain sections of Interpol\u2019s constitution to see what we think it could mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood that a response from Interpol to the UK government\u2019s correspondence stated that it would respect article 3 of its constitution, which forbids it from undertaking any intervention or activities of a political character.<\/p>\n

Interpol screens red notices, which are requests to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition. If circulated to the enforcement agencies, individual member countries then decide whether to act on the requests. Nearly 20,000 were issued last year.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

The intensity of the Argentinian menace relating to the Falklands is at a level that UK officials say has not been seen since the war 44 years ago that followed the invasion ordered by Argentina\u2019s dictator Gen Leopoldo Galtieri.<\/p>\n

The 74-day conflict ended with the surrender of the Argentinian forces and cost the lives of 649 of its military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland islanders.<\/p>\n

Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over the 700 islands that make up the Falklands and has dismissed a 2013 referendum in which 99.8% of the islands\u2019 3,600 residents voted to remain a British territory, with only three votes against<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite Interpol\u2019s reassurance about its screening of red notice requests, concerns remain that Argentina could convince the organisation\u2019s member states that its requests are not political but rooted in domestic legislation.<\/p>\n

Milei has initiated criminal proceedings against the Israeli company Navitas and its British partner, Rockhopper Exploration, which are the core companies in the offshore Sea Lion project.<\/p>\n

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A draft national sovereignty introduced to Argentina\u2019s congress would further expand the scope of sanctions to affiliates of those companies, financial intermediaries, shareholders and suppliers.<\/p>\n

The bill additionally contains clauses that could target those involved in the fishing industry in the Falklands, which makes up a large part of the islands\u2019 economy. The archipelago is 300 miles (500km) east of the southern Patagonian coast of Argentina.<\/p>\n

Workers in the oil and fisheries sectors on the Falklands \u2013 known in Argentina as Las Malvinas \u2013 are understood to be concerned that they could be targeted should they travel, particularly to South America where there is support for Buenos Aires\u2019s sovereignty claim.<\/p>\n

In a tandem move to kill off Sea Lion, Argentina is expected within 24 hours to escalate further its dispute with the UK by requesting arbitration under annexe VII of the UN convention on the law of the sea (Unclos) over the oil project.<\/p>\n

On 28 September, Milei gave the UK a two-week deadline to stop the project or face such a legal action. The deadline passed on Monday and Argentinian newspapers said an application for arbitration would follow.<\/p>\n

Under it, Buenos Aires will claim that the UK is in breach of a UN resolution inviting the parties to negotiate over the sovereignty dispute and refrain from \u201cunilateral modifications\u201d to the situation. It will be seeking a binding ruling that the UK must stop the drilling. However, UK government sources are confident that Unclos will not wade into a sovereignty dispute.<\/p>\n

At a public meeting on Monday evening, one of the Falkland Islands\u2019 assembly members, Dean Dent, told constituents that the UK government was working hard on a tough response to the Argentinian Unclos threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK government has assembled quite an in-depth team of legal advisers, KCs \u2013 that is the first step,\u201d he said. \u201cThere have been four recent similar cases where a case of sovereignty has been taken to Unclos and all four were disregarded by the tribunal as all four cases were a sovereignty issue, not a maritime issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK government is expected to be increasingly muscular in its approach to Argentina in the coming days. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, told parliament on Monday that he had raised the issue and \u201cthe clear and declared will of the islanders to remain British\u201d with the US president, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina\u2019s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in a large…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-801367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}