An Israeli-owned company’s plan for an offshore oil project in the Falkland Islands created tension—and a slew of fake news—in the unprecedentedly strong bilateral relations between Jerusalem and Buenos Aires, ahead of the inauguration of the Argentinian embassy in Jerusalem, slated for the spring.
The issue of the islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean that has been claimed by Argentina for nearly two centuries, is a perennially charged topic in Buenos Aires. So news that Navitas Petroleum intends to carry out offshore drilling in the archipelago with the British firm Rockhopper in 2028 prompted an official protest by the Argentinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September.
The Israeli firm had been previously sanctioned by the Argentinian government for carrying out oil-drilling operations without authorization, based on a 1976 United Nations resolution that established that neither Argentina nor the United Kingdom can make unilateral decisions over the territory as long as negotiations over the sovereignty of the Falklands continue.
Seeking to defuse the matter, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar informed Argentina that the Israeli government was not involved in, and had no control over, Navitas’s operations, given that it is a public company, and that Israel greatly valued its special relationship with Argentina under President Javier Milei.
But the touchy issue went public this weekend, after officials who were never enthusiastic about the Argentinian embassy relocation to Jerusalem and were looking for a pretext to subvert it spurred a report on Israel’s Channel 12 that the embassy move was being halted because of the controversy.
As Israeli diplomats scurried to do damage control, the Argentinian embassy in Tel Aviv pointedly declined to comment on the report, with Argentinian Ambassador to Israel Axel Wahnish, who served as Milei’s personal Rabbi, remaining unusually silent.
An official close to Milei told JNS this week that the report was “fake news.”
“Despite reports from Channel 12 suggesting tensions over the Falklands oil dispute, the relationship between Israel and Argentina remains as strong and steadfast as ever under President Javier Milei’s leadership, with ongoing close cooperation between our nations,” Julio Goldestein, an advisor to the president, told JNS.
According to a report on the Argentinian news site Infobae last month, the Argentinian government welcomed the Israeli foreign minister’s statement about the oil company and did not mention anything about the embassy.
“The Argentine Foreign Ministry interpreted Sa’ar’s statement as a gesture that allowed the incident to be channeled through the usual channels of diplomacy, preventing a bilateral escalation,” the report said. “They considered the explicit distinction between a private initiative and the position of the Israeli state to be a sign of respect for Argentina’s claim.”
The report continued: “The Foreign Ministry reported that the formal protest remains in effect and that the country will use diplomatic, administrative and legal means to discourage these activities,” citing the sanctions against the Israeli oil company.
In a historic break, Milei has aligned Argentina with both the United States and Israel on foreign policy and has pledged to move the embassy this year.
This spring, an official said, he plans to come to Jerusalem for the embassy opening, as well as stop in the U.K. on his way home, to iron out the oil issue.
