Desperate Argentina rages at 'illegitimate occupation' of Falklands and claims native islanders are 'artificial implants'

Argentina has attacked Britain's so-called "illegitimate occupation" of the Falkland Islands in a desperate new attempt to stake claim to the territory.

In a furious and long-winded essay, the country's Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno demanded Britain open talks on the sovereignty of the islands and even raged at their inhabitants.

Mr Quirno branded the natives an "artificially implanted" population - despite the fact that around 86 per cent of his own country's population descend from Europeans.

The archipelago was first landed on by English explorers more than a century before Argentina existed as an independent state. It had no permanent population before the British arrived.

"Time does not transform an illegitimate occupation into sovereignty. Nor will it divide the territorial unity of the Argentine Republic," Mr Quirno blustered in a column in Argentine paper La Nacion.

He branded any dispute as a "special and particular colonial situation, originating in the violation of Argentina's territorial integrity".

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He then made the extraordinary claim that neither Britain's decisive victory in 1982 nor a 2013 referendum had resolved any dispute over who controls the islands.

Some 99.8 per cent of voters opted to remain British in 2013. Three voters said no.

Either way, Mr Quirno insisted that the future of the Falklands will remain a priority for President Javier Milei's regime.

His column also references "international law" and points to how a selection of regional groups have called for peaceful talks over the islands.

"Our claim will not be relinquished, resigned, or abandoned," the Foreign Minister threatened.

"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."

Argentina surrendered after just 74 days of war on June 14, 1982 in Port Stanley.

Mr Quirno also appeared to undermine any future referendum in the British Overseas Territory.

No poll "organised unilaterally by the UK can have legal effect", he said, adding that only negotiations between Argentina and Britain can decide the islands' future.

"We must not fall into the referendum trap," he raged.

And he condemned plans to drill an offshore oilfield near the islands, which he claimed were "based on fraudulent licenses issued by illegitimate authorities".

The Foreign Minister's intervention reignites a row over the Falklands which boiled over earlier this year after a leaked Pentagon memo suggested the US might review its position on British sovereignty over Britain's failure to pitch in with the Iran war.

President Milei claimed in April that the Falklands, which he, his country and Gary Lineker call "Las Malvinas", "were, are and will always be Argentine".

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio then downplayed the memo as "just an idea".

And it comes just days before England face off against Argentina in one of the most politically charged World Cup semi-finals in a generation.

Lionel Messi led Argentine players in chants of: "For the Malvinas, For Diego, For Leo's last one," after the three-time winners joined England in the last four.

Wednesday night's clash will give the Three Lions a chance to avenge two successive World Cup defeats to Argentina in 1998 and 1986.

In the latter, Diego Maradona used his nation's defeat four years prior to fuel him as he handled the ball past Peter Shilton to score the infamous "Hand of God" goal.

Last night, Dame Priti Patel, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said Argentina's "latest comments about the Falkland Islanders are as offensive as they are wrong".

"The people of the Falkland Islands are proudly British, and their right to self-determination is absolute. No amount of revisionist rhetoric from Buenos Aires will change that," Dame Priti added.

"Britain will always stand firmly with the Falkland Islanders."

Her colleague Matt Vickers told GB News: "We won the war. The people spoke. It's nonsense - but it's adding a bit of spice to a football match."

GB News has approached the Foreign Office and the Government of the Falkland Islands for comment.

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