I've said for ages somthing like this was going to happenHostilities between the UK and Argentina will reach boiling point with the arrival of a British oil rig off the Falkland Islands.
Buenos Aires has threatened to take steps to prevent what it believes is 'illegal' drilling - including a blockade of ships.
But oil exploration firm Desire Petroleum confirmed that the huge drilling platform Ocean Guardian was due to enter the archipelago's waters in defiance of the Argentine government's warnings.
Tensions between Britain and Argentina have flared up over the imminent drilling operation by four British firms set to begin next week. Experts claim there could be 60billion barrels of oil in the rocks deep beneath the ocean floor.
Four warships are in the South Atlantic, including the destroyer York anchored off the islands' capital Port Stanley, and four RAF bombers have been deployed as a show of strength, military sources claimed.
On Tuesday Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner issued a decree requiring all vessels passing through its territorial waters to and from the Falklands to gain permission from Buenos Aires, though it is unclear how it can enforce this.
The decree raised the possibility that civilian and even military vessels could be stopped or boarded by the Argentinian Navy. Argentina has lodged a hostile claim at the United Nations for 660,000 square miles of the South Atlantic seabed which surrounds the islands, known locally as Las Malvinas. Territorial waters usually extend 12 miles from the coast.
The country's deputy foreign minister Victorio Taccetti said yesterday that 'adequate measures' would be taken to stop oil exploration, although he ruled out military action.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1251901/Falkland-Islands-oil-row-Argentina-warns-UK-complacency.html#ixzz0g1i7Xb6s