Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the embassy’s opening on Wednesday in an office complex in west Jerusalem.
Festively reigned as Guatemala opened its new embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so after the United States, and giving Israel a diplomatic boost as it faces international criticism for the deadly violence on the Gaza border.
According to Algemeiner.com:
Morales dedicated the embassy just two days after a high-powered American delegation also marked the transfer of its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“It’s not a coincidence that Guatemala is opening its embassy in Jerusalem right among the first. You were always among the first. You were the second country to recognize Israel,” Netanyahu said at the ceremony, referring to its founding in 1948.
Morales said his country, Israel and the US “share friendship, courage and loyalty.”
Guatemala was one of only a few nations that backed US President Donald Trump’s decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and is only the second country to move its embassy to the city. Paraguay said it will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of May.
