National deputy for Unión por la Patria Juan Marino, along with 23 legislators from his bloc, presented a resolution project this Monday declaring the neutrality of the Argentine Republic in the war between the United States, Israel, and the Islamic Republic of Iran. This project adds to the one presented days earlier by national deputy from the same bloc, Eduardo Valdés, which requests that the government of Javier Milei keep Argentina out of any international armed conflict and “refrain from moving troops or assuming military commitments without authorization from Congress.” These initiatives come amid a deepening diplomatic crisis between Argentina and Iran, sparked by our country's alignment with the United States and Israel in the Middle East war. In this context, the Argentine government declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization and subsequently declared the chargé d'affaires of the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires a “persona non grata,” ordering him to leave the country within 48 hours. The Islamic Republic of Iran, in turn, strongly condemned “the illegal and unjustified action of the Argentine government” and classified the decision to include the Revolutionary Guard on the list of terrorist organizations as “an unforgivable offense to the Iranian people.” Furthermore, Iran stated that the Argentine president and foreign minister “have positioned themselves as accomplices to the crimes committed and on the wrong side of history.” Marino's project, accessed by the Argentine News Agency, establishes that Argentina is not a belligerent party in said conflict and “reaffirms the country's historical vocation for peace in accordance with the National Constitution and the Charter of the United Nations.” The initiative also ratifies that “Latin America and the Caribbean constitute a zone of peace, in accordance with the CELAC Proclamation of 2014 and UN General Assembly Resolution 41/11.” The resolution disavows all statements and acts of the Executive Branch that positioned Argentina as an ally of one of the parties in the conflict (the United States and Israel), “for having been carried out without authorization from Congress, in violation of article 75, section 25, of the National Constitution, which reserves to the Legislative Branch the powers in matters of war and peace.” Among the disavowed acts, Marino includes the communiqués from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the President of February 28, the declarations of President Javier Milei at Yeshiva University on March 9, and the declarations of Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno and Secretary of Communication Javier Lanari regarding the possibility of providing military assistance to the United States. Moreover, the project instructs the Executive Branch to “refrain from any form of military, logistical, or intelligence cooperation in the conflict” and “requests that it submit to Congress within ten business days a full copy of the agreements signed at the Conference on Anti-Cartels of the Americas and the proclamation of the Shield of the Americas.” Lastly, it provides for the communication of the resolution to the UN, OAS, CELAC, and the governments of the United States, Israel, and Iran; and invites the National Senate to pronounce itself in the same sense.
