Falklands

[Louis VI the Fat]

It's official!

The US tells its closest ally, the country with which it enjoys a teary-eyed Special Relationship and Civil Union: 'Up Yours, Britain'.

Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

Despite Britain’s close alliance with the US, the Obama Administration is determined not to be drawn into the issue. It has also declined to back Britain’s claim that oil exploration near the islands is sanctioned by international law, saying that the dispute is strictly a bilateral issue.

http://www.iiss.org/whats-new/iiss-i...s-oil-dispute/

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Kevin Casas-Zamora, a Brookings Institution analyst and former vice-president of Costa Rica, said that President Reagan’s support for Britain in 1982 “irked a lot of people in Latin America”.

The Obama Administration “is trying to split the difference as much as it can because it knows that coming round to the British position would again create a lot of ill will in the region”, he said.

Latin America has awoken. a lot of this sabbre-ratlling is to do with new economic might, shifting demographic balances, and the need for Latin America to express newfound confidence and solidarity at last week's Latin american summit. Always good to have a foreign scapegoat or enemy to emphasise internal closed ranks.

Not to be mean or anything, but the very surname of the Brookings Intitution analyst is a hint to the other reason why the US does not back Britain this time round. The world changes.