Argentina picks the Western camp over neutrality

The war that started when the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February turned into the organizing event of Argentine foreign policy. Most of Latin America stayed quiet or condemned the strikes. Javier Milei did the opposite. He called the war the right thing to do, offered to send help to American forces in the Persian Gulf if asked, and framed the fight as a defense of Israel's survival. Where his neighbors hedged, Argentina chose a side and said so out loud.

That choice carried a clear bill. In early April, Buenos Aires expelled Iran's top diplomat and severed what remained of its ties with Tehran, closing a relationship long poisoned by the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center. The rupture cleaned on a feud the country already had. It also locked Argentina into the American and Israeli column with no easy way back.

The payoff arrived in Jerusalem. On a state visit in the second half of April, Milei and Benjamin Netanyahu launched the Isaac Accords, a framework meant to pull Latin American governments toward Israel, and signed memorandums on military and scientific cooperation. The two governments set direct Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv flights to begin later in the year, and Milei renewed his pledge to move Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem. Netanyahu cast the accords as Israel's biggest diplomatic opening in the region since the Abraham deals. Israel handed Milei its highest civilian honor and an honorary doctorate. For a mid-sized economy far from the Middle East, it was an unusually large bet on a single partnership.

The limit on all of it is money. The same Western turn that made Washington a backer keeps Beijing a buyer, and Argentine commodity exports still depend on China even as American officials press Milei to shut Chinese firms out. The European trade deal began applying provisionally in the spring, widening Argentina's Western opening. But austerity has cut into wages, Milei's approval has slipped, and the foreign wins look bold mainly so long as the economy at home holds.