Clinton offers US help to resolve Falklands spat between Argentina, Britain

Clinton offers to help resolve Falklands spat

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday offered to help Argentina and Britain resolve a festering dispute over a vast swath of the southern Atlantic Ocean where Britain has begun drilling for oil.

Clinton told reporters, “We want them talking, and we want them trying to resolve the outstanding issues.”

She said the two countries should agree themselves over the sovereignty of the British-administered Falkland Islands, where the two nations fought a brief war in 1982.

“We are not interested in, and have no real role in, determining what they decide between the two of them,” Clinton said. But she told reporters en route to the Argentine capital, “What we want to do is facilitate them talking to each other.”

Speaking earlier Monday in Uruguay, Clinton had said the United States is willing to be a go-between. The islands are claimed by Argentina, which refers to them as Las Malvinas. U.S. officials have insisted Washington is neutral on the question of sovereignty but does recognize the current British administration of the islands.

Argentina last week asked the head of the United Nations to help resolve the long-running dispute. The U.N. General Assembly had called for Argentina and Britain to negotiate sovereignty over the islands following the war, which Britain won. Britain has ruled out any concessions involving the islands that its people have occupied since the early 1800s.

Argentina says the islands are part of its territory and that the islands’ residents, who strongly favor retaining ties to Britain, do not have the unilateral right to decide what they want the islands to be.

Argentina was a last-minute addition to the itinerary that includes Uruguay, quake-devastated Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Clinton had planned to see Argentine President Cristina Fernandez in Montevideo, where they both attended the inauguration of new Uruguayan President Jose Mujica. There had been grumbling in Argentina that Clinton’s original decision to skip Buenos Aires was a snub.