UK PM takes up first fight with Pope

British Prime Minister David Cameron has opened British relations with Vatican under the new Pope with an altercation over the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands (Falklands).

Pope Francis, who is the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, had previously supported Argentinian government’s stance on the islands saying they are “Argentinian soil” which has been “usurped” by Britain.

Last year, he had described Britain’s invasion of the islands in 1982 as “usurpation”.

Less than two days after Pope Francis was elected, Cameron told a press conference in Brussels that everyone in the world should respect the outcome of the recent London-sponsored referendum on the islands in which residents said they want to remain British.

Cameron said, in a reference to the way cardinals announce the election of the new Pope by letting off a white smoke from St Peter’s cathedral in Rome, that “the white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear.”

“I don’t agree with him [the Pope] – respectfully, obviously. There was a pretty extraordinarily clear referendum in the Falkland Islands and I think that is a message to everyone in the world that the people of these islands have chosen very clearly the future they want and that choice should be respected by everyone,” he added.

Argentina has not accepted the result of the referendum as a legally-binding proof for how the South Atlantic islands should be ruled.

Buenos Aires argues that a referendum is not acceptable as the original residents of the territory have been expelled from there by the British after the illegal occupation of the archipelago in 1833, and holding a referendum means paradoxically asking Brits whether they want to remain British.