Diplomacy

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Following U.S. and Guatemala, Paraguay to Move Its Embassy to Jerusalem by the End of May

by TheTower.org Staff |

Paraguay will be the third nation to move its embassy to Jerusalem, which it plans to do by the end of the month, following the leads of the United States and Guatemala, The Jerusalem Post reported Tuesday. Outgoing Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes is planning to attend the ceremony.

 

The American embassy is scheduled to open next week on May 14 to coincide with the secular date of Israel’s independence, and Guatemala is scheduled to open its Jerusalem embassy two days later.

Cartes, at the end of May, at a celebration of Israel’s 70th anniversary pledged to move the Paraguayan embassy before the end of his term in August. At the time he had not given a specific date for the move. A Paraguayan government spokesman told Reuters that Cortes planned to travel to Israel on May 21 or 22 for the opening of the embassy.

On Tuesday this week, Tanzania opened an embassy in Ramat Gan, becoming the fifteenth African country to establish an embassy in Israel, and the fourth to do so in just the last three years.

Tanzanian Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga, the highest-ranking Tanzanian official to visit Israel, was on hand for the opening of the embassy.

Israel and Tanzania had first established diplomatic relation in 1963, but Tanzania, like many African nations broke ties with Israel after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The two countries re-established diplomatic relations in 1995. Relations between the two countries improved with the election of President John Magufuli in 2015. During a mini-summit with African leaders at Entebbe in 2016, Mahiga promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his nation would open an embassy in Israel.

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who recently visited Tanzania, attended the opening of the embassy, and said that she hoped that the opening of the embassy would improve the level of cooperation between the two nations.

[Photo: IsraeliPM / YouTube ]

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