Britain stole Falklands, Argentina says

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Argentina has started a protest at the United Nations over the so-called militarization of the Falkland Islands by the British, officials said.

Argentinian foreign minister Hector Timerman submitted a formal complaint Friday to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on British military equipment, including a modern destroyer ship and a nuclear submarine, being moved to the islands, The Guardian reported.

"Argentina has information that within the framework of the recent British deployment in the Malvinas [Falkland] Islands they sent a nuclear submarine with the capacity to transport nuclear weapons to the South Atlantic. This is a submarine which is called the Vanguard," Timerman said.

Argentinian officials claimed Britain stole the islands, situated 300 miles off the coast of Patagonia, in 1833. Argentina calls the archipelago Las Malvinas.

British officials held a press conference to dispute claims made by the Timerman, Voice of America reported.

"Before 1982 there was a minimal defense presence on the Falkland Islands," said British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant. "It is only because Argentina illegally invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982 that since then we have had to increase our defense posture. Nothing has changed in that defense posture in recent months or recent years."