President Javier Milei meets with Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Photo: X/@OPRArgentina.
During his visit to Israel, Argentinian President Javier Milei reaffirmed his intention to move Argentina’s embassy to Jerusalem and signed a defense agreement with Tel Aviv. Experts consulted by Sputnik warned that Milei’s position could have “serious consequences” for the country and even make it a “target for attacks.”
During his recent trip to Tel Aviv, just hours before the Israeli attacks on Iran that triggered an escalation of the Middle East conflict, Argentina’s President Javier Milei signed a “Memorandum in Defense of Freedom and Democracy Against Terrorism and Anti-Semitism” that consolidates an alignment that, according to experts, could endanger the South American country.
“Argentina and Israel are beacons of light in a world obscured by darkness. We must be united in this fight,” Milei stated during the signing of the agreement in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As reported by Argentina’s government, the memorandum “lays the foundation for intensive collaboration in defense and security matters” and underlines Argentina’s commitment “to the fight against terrorism and antisemitism.”
Hours after the signing, during an event in Madrid, Milei went further and explicitly defended the Israeli attacks on Iran on June 13. “Israel accepts the existence of other countries, but Iran does not accept the existence of Israel,” he told Spanish liberal leaders.
‘An unprecedented positioning’
“Argentina is clearly taking an unprecedented position of total alignment with Israel. While there had been something similar with the US and Israel in the 1990s, this time the alignment is total, and at a time of radicalization on the part of both Israel and the Arab countries,” Argentinian international analyst Gonzalo Fiore told Sputnik.
Also consulted by Sputnik, international analyst Juan Alberto Rial recalled that, in the 1990s, the alignment of Argentina’s then-President Carlos Menem (1989-1999) with Washington and Tel Aviv led to “Argentina being involved in the blockade of Iraq and the formation of an international coalition driven by the US after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.”
For Rial, positions like those pursued by Milei’s Argentina toward Israel and the US are signs of “an unhealthy foreign policy,” given that “it is abandoning its own interests and placing national interests in the hands of other capitals.” The expert explained, “it’s as if you stopped having a foreign ministry and all you needed was a telephone line to talk to Washington or Tel Aviv, and from there they dictate what you can and cannot do.”
Satellites and access to the Paraná River for Israel
Rial, secretary of the Institute of International Relations at the National University of La Plata (UNLP), dismissed the idea that the signing of the agreement implies that Argentina will “provide weapons” to Israel. “Israel doesn’t need it, and I don’t believe it needs military assistance of any kind,” he noted.
However, he recalled that the agreement signed by Milei and Netanyahu does cover other points beyond defense. Indeed, as reported by the newspaper La Nación, the memorandum contemplates “joint satellite launches” and “water technology centers on the Paraná River,” in addition to customs benefits for Israel and the creation of a direct flight between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv.
Is Argentina in danger?
For both experts, the agreement signed between Milei and Netanyahu and Milei’s public statements in support of Tel Aviv could place the South American country in the middle of a conflict that is not its own.
“Stepping this way could have serious consequences for Argentina, because it would drag the country into a conflict in which we have no involvement, because we have no interests in the region. Argentina shouldn’t get involved, and we don’t know what the consequences of doing so might be,” Fiore reflected.
Rial, for his part, warned that the major problem behind the agreement lies in the fact that, while it allows Israel to “emerge from the very severe international isolation” it was left in following the attacks on the Gaza Strip, it seriously compromises Argentina with the countries in conflict with Israel.
In this regard, Rial considered the announcement that Argentina will move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a measure that, according to the analyst, is “a violation of international law” by ignoring the status of “international city” established by the United Nations.
“This is extremely worrying because it makes Argentina a potential target for a terrorist attack in the future. Without wishing to be alarmist, this is the type of foreign policy action that has consequences of this nature, as already happened during the 1990s,” Rial commented.
At the same time, this alignment with Israel could, according to the expert, seriously weaken Argentina’s claim to the Malvinas, occupied by the United Kingdom since 1833. In that sense, he recalled that Argentina’s claim to the islands is largely supported “by countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia” and that support “will be weakened by Milei’s position of aligning with Israel when international condemnation is practically unanimous.”
(Sputnik Mundo) by Sergio Pintado
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SH