BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - 
Argentina asked the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to intervene Tuesday and block the UK from developing offshore oil fields around the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as the Islas Malvinas.  
“The request submitted to the Tribunal seeks to preserve Argentina’s sovereign rights over its continental shelf and to prevent activities unilaterally and illegally authorized by the United Kingdom from aggravating the dispute recognized by the United Nations,” President Javier Milei’s office said in a statement. The filing seeks urgent provisional measures under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to freeze hydrocarbon exploitation in the Sea Lion oilfield while an arbitral tribunal is formed.
The legal maneuver follows international arbitration proceedings that Milei launched on Sept. 28 under UNCLOS Annex VII. Milei labeled the territory “historically and legally” Argentine, issuing a two-week deadline for London to halt the Sea Lion oil project and threatening legal and economic measures against involved energy firms.
The UK and the Falkland Islands Government, an archipelago 483 kilometers (300 miles) east of Argentina’s coast, maintain that the exploration licenses are fully lawful, arguing that islanders possess the right to self-determination and the development of their natural resources.
Argentina reiterated its “legitimate and imprescriptible sovereign rights” over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and surrounding maritime areas.