Argentina and Spain: Monkey see, Monkey do

NO SOONER did the newly elected Argentinian government complain about the continued “illegal occupation” of the Falkland Islands, which it refers to as Malvinas – which, as everyone knows was originally occupied by France – even though it withdrew from the islands in 1811 whilst still a Spanish colony than the Spanish Foreign ministry announced that it supports the call for the return of the Falkland Islands to Argentina.

Naturally, this support announced on January 7 also enabled the Spanish government to remind the world of its claims on Gibraltar, even though that overseas territory is named after the Moorish leader Jabal Tariq, who occupied the Rock in the eighth century, and it was formally ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Perhaps King Mohamed VI of Morocco will take this opportunity to question the on-going presence of Spain in Ceuta, Tetuan and Melilla.