UK insists Malvinas sovereignty is unchanged after US threat

The UK has insisted it will retain sovereignty of the Malvinas (Falklands) Islands, after a leaked Pentagon email suggested the US would review the territory’s position as punishment for Britain’s lack of support on the war in Iran.

“We could not be clearer about the UK’s position on the Falkland Islands,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, told journalists on Friday. “It’s long standing, it’s unchanged. Sovereignty rests with the UK, and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount.”

Britain fought a war with Argentina in 1982 over the islands’ sovereignty, a matter that remains politically sensitive.

Pares added that the government was not concerned about the apparent threat from Washington. He said the UK and US have “one of the most important security and defence relationships, if not the closest that the world’s ever seen, and it’s going to continue.”

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Starmer for failing to fully back his war in Iran. Starmer initially did not allow the use of UK military bases for strikes on Iran, and has since allowed their use only for defensive attacks.