Timerman blasts UK Defence Minister over apology demands

Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman replied to recent demands of an apology made by English Defence Minister Phillip Hammond over a controversial Olympic ad shot in the Malvinas Islands, and urged England to “honour the deaths of those who died in the 1982 conflict by constructing peace.”

“In the last few days we have seen an intense battle led by the UK’s Defence Ministry against the Argentine Republic. Mr. Phillip Hammond is a fearful adversary,” Timerman said in a press release. 

“Mr. Hammond has demanded an apology from Argentina for saying in an ad that our athletes train on Argentine soil in order to compete on British soil,” he added.

“Mr. Hammond should know that the world is safer when you choose to use creativity rather than bombing civilians in independent countries,” he continued. 

The head of the Foreign Ministry stated that the minister “demands, as an almighty knight, for Argentina to express regret for the creativity of an ad that sums up our feelings. He has yet to provide details regarding which punishment he will enact against us if we fail to meet his demands.”

“I suggest instead that he joins us in the negotiating table. That the UK doesn’t need to maintain in the Malvinas the most militarized region in the world. One soldier for almost every three inhabitants,” he said. 

He then recalled that Prime Minister David Cameron still hasn’t replied to President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s request to allow the Red Cross to act as intermediary in the islands so both British and Argentine soldiers buried in numerous nameless graves can be identified.

“Let’s honour the memory of those who died by helping their families have a grave where they can go cry to,” he concluded.