Argentina’s government raised its national security threat level to ‘medium’ last Saturday and upgraded the alert level at its embassies in the Middle East to ‘high,’ a senior national government official has confirmed to Perfil.
President Javier Milei’s government is closely monitoring developments in the region amid a climate of strict secrecy. Acting on its threat to retaliate against the recent United States air strikes on nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo, Iran launched ballistic missiles at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar – the largest US military base in the region and the headquarters of the US Central Command for Middle East operations.
According to international wires, US defence officials confirmed the Iranian attack but said there were no reported casualties.
So far, Argentina’s government has made no official statement on the situation in the region. President Javier Milei, however, has reposted several messages on social media – last Sunday backing the US operation ordered by Donald Trump, which has drawn Washington into open war with Tehran.
Among the messages shared by Milei was a post from Defence Minister Luis Petri, who declared that Argentina is “on the right side of history.”
“Tomorrow the world will wake up freer and more peaceful! We were victims of Iranian terror and paid for it with innocent blood. Thank you, President Milei!” wrote Petri around midnight on Saturday, after news of the US military action went public.
Across Latin America, nations including Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba condemned the US strikes on Iranian nuclear installations.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that the US operation represented a violation of Iranian sovereignty and international law, and voiced its “grave concern” about the consequences of further military escalation in the Middle East. Brazil also condemned Israeli raids on Iranian nuclear sites and reaffirmed its support for “the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear energy” – a principle it has long defended in tandem with Argentina.
“Any armed attack on nuclear facilities represents a serious threat to the lives and health of civilian populations, exposing them to the risk of radioactive contamination and large-scale environmental disasters,” said the statement issued by Itamaraty.
This is a relevant development. The Milei administration has distanced itself from Argentina’s longstanding position on nuclear non-proliferation – an area in which the nation holds a strong international reputation.
With a long history in the nuclear field, Argentina has, for decades, been one of the most active countries in promoting non-proliferation and peaceful uses of atomic energy. It is a signatory to numerous treaties and conventions involving binding commitments, including the 1994 Treaty of Tlatelolco banning nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, the 1995 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its 1991 bilateral safeguards agreement with Brazil.
The latter also established the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), in coordination with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is currently led by Argentine diplomat Rafael Mariano Grossi. These frameworks reflect the strategic decision by both Argentina and Brazil to ensure transparency in their nuclear programmes.
Argentina’s foreign and security policy has long been guided by the objective of consolidating nuclear-weapon-free zones – an initiative exemplified by Latin America – across the globe.
However, Perfil reported last November that Argentina broke with this tradition by voting against a United Nations General Assembly resolution that called for a study on establishing new nuclear-weapon-free zones, including in the Middle East. The resolution passed by an overwhelming majority of 172 votes to two – with only Israel and Argentina opposed. The United States, under a Democratic administration, supported the resolution, as did every other Western nation.
The decision taken in New York contradicted a previous Argentine statement at the same forum under the same government. In March 2023, in a contribution to Resolution 78/17, Argentina had reiterated its “clear support for the establishment and consolidation of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZs).”
Regarding the Middle East, it stated: “Argentina has consistently supported the importance of establishing a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone and other Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East, understanding that such a development would mark a crucial step for the region’s peace process. It is hoped that this can be freely agreed upon by the participating States.”
While seeking to dismantle Iran’s nuclear programme, Israel routinely opposes any initiative to establish a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East. It is also the only country in the region that is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
It is widely believed that Israel has possessed nuclear weapons since the latter half of the 20th century, though it has never officially confirmed the fact.
Comments