Sean Penn Accuses UK Of 'Intimidating' Argentina Over Falkland Islands

Sean Penn Steps Up Attack On Britain
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Sean Penn has ramped up his criticism of Britain's behaviour over the Falkland Islands, accusing the UK of sending a "message of pre-emptive intimidation" to Argentina.

The Hollywood star writes in the Guardian that his support for Argentina's claim to the Islands "is not a cause of leftist flamboyance nor significantly a centuries-old literary dispute. But rather a modern one, that is perhaps unveiled most legitimately through the raconteurism of Patagonian fishermen."

He adds: "It is difficult to imagine that there is no correlation between the likely discovery of offshore oil reserves and the message of pre-emptive intimidation being sent by the UK to Argentina."

The actor ends his piece with the simple phrase: "God save the Queen."

However his intervention did not go down well with twitter users, with journalist Suzanne Moore joking:

And MP Denis MacShane said the article was "beyond parody"

Journalist Ian Birrell asked:

Earlier this month Penn launched a tirade against British "colonialism" as the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the islands deepened.

Penn said the deployment of Prince William to the islands as a search and rescue pilot was "unthinkable" and that dialogue was the only way to solve the dispute.

The Commons defence committee recently confirmed MPs would make a trip to the Islands later this year.