Les Malouines-2010: Londres de plus en plus furieux

Les Malouines-2010: Londres de plus en plus furieux

La visite impromptue d’Hillary Clinton à Buenos-Aires, pour rencontrer la présidente argentine Kirchner ressemble de plus en plus à un soutien de Washington à l’Argentine dans la querelle qui oppose ce pays à l’Angleterre, à nouveau à propos des Malouines. Les Anglais commencent à la trouver mauvaise et les “relations spéciales” le sont de moins en moins. J’ai un ami anglais, fonctionnaire au Foreign Office, qui me dit que l’affaire est vécue comme une “très profonde humiliation” par les Britanniques, sans doute plus qu’aucune autre affaire depuis l’arrivée des travaillistes de Blair au pouvoir, et que le ressentiment contre les USA est très vif.

Voir l’article du Times du 2 mars 2010. (Lien : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7045992.ece

«A late change to Hillary Clinton’s travel plans resulted in a meeting in Buenos Aires last night between the US Secretary of State and President Fernández de Kirchner — giving the appearance of tacit US backing for Argentina in its dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

»Mrs Clinton has offered to mediate, even though Whitehall is opposed to any negotiations on the sovereignty of the islands. While it remained the US position that Britain and Argentina should resolve the dispute themselves, “if we can be of any help in facilitating such an effort, we stand ready to do so,” Mrs Clinton said. “What we want to do is facilitate them talking to each other.

»“We’re not interested and have no real role in determining what they decide between the two of them. But we do want them talking and we want them trying to resolve the outstanding issues between them. We recognise that these are contentious matters that have to be resolved and we hope that they will do so.”

»Her meeting with Mrs Kirchner, originally scheduled as a 10-minute “bilateral” in Montevideo, came as British officials conceded for the first time that the language used by US officials responding to the dispute — and in particular the use of “Las Malvinas” alongside the British name for the islands — had caused consternation.»

“Vieux Rebelle”