Argentina presses Falklands claim By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 30, 3:17 AM ET
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Twenty-five years after hostilities ceased, Argentina is opening a new front in the Falklands War.
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Rather than jets and mortar rounds, however, this salvo involves diplomats appealing for help at the United Nations and the government reasserting long-standing claims to the island chain where far more sheep than people huddle against the forbidding South Atlantic winds.
London, however, maintains its hold on the island, which Argentina invaded 25 years ago this Monday.
Many Argentines — especially the left-wing power base of President Nestor Kirchner — see the war as a huge mistake pursued by the nation's discredited military dictators. But Argentines still universally call the Falklands — known in South America as the "Malvinas" — as their own. And in this election year, Kirchner appears poised to gain support by pushing hard against Britain's firm refusal to negotiate on the islands' fate.
"Argentina has never consented to the United Kingdom's claim of rights to the territory," Eduardo Airaldi, Kirchner's top official in charge of the South Atlantic region, said as he described Kirchner's position in an interview with The Associated Press.
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