Argentina Summons UK Ambassador to Explain Spying Revelations

Eldonita de Ivan Martínez
2015-04-10 11:55:33

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Buenos Aires, April 10 (teleSUR-RHC) The Argentine Foreign Ministry summoned the country’s British ambassador on Thursday to “demand explanations amid the silence” from the British government over revelations of massive digital spying against Argentina on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands issue.

London, in return, has asked to question Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro over the same matter. The latest feud between the two nations comes in relation to recent exposure by U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden, of British surveillance on Argentine electronic communication surrounding the dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas archipelago. Argentine Foreign Minister Eduardo Zuain told British diplomat John Freeman that, “actions of that type violate the right of privacy as established in resolutions 68/167 and 69/166 of the General Assembly of the United Nations,” Pagina 12 reports.

The newly-revealed documents suggest that Britain began spying on the South American country's officials in 2009. The intelligence data also revealed that British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters had been allegedly preparing a covert plan called “QUITO Operation,” which involved the Joint Threat Research and Intelligence Group, a classified unit that spread misinformation.

The spat is the latest in series concerning the British and Argentine scuffle over the remote group of islands. The U.K. claims the spying began because it feared that Argentina could be planning another operation to regain control of its islands, which were colonized by the British empire in 1833.

Argentina has repeatedly rejected such claims. Last week, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez warned the United Kingdom to cease its Malvinas aggression, because Argentina does not present a “military threat.”

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating those killed in the war with Britain in 1982, Fernandez accused the U.K. of militarizing the archipelago in response to arms-dealing lobbies, using an alleged Argentine invasion of the Malvinas as a pretext to flex its military muscle. “Find yourselves another excuse, because we are not a military threat to anyone,” she said.



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