Guatemala opens its embassy in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: Guatemala opened an embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, two days after the US inaugurated its new site in the contested city in a move that infuriated Palestinians and drew international condemnation.

Israeli troops shot dead dozens of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on Monday when the high-profile opening of the US embassy to Israel in Jerusalem by the administration of President Donald Trump raised tension to boiling point after weeks of anti-israeli demonstrations.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the embassy’s opening on Wednesday in an office complex in west 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 recognise Israel,” Netanyahu said at the ceremony, referring to the country’s founding in 1948.

Guatemala was one of only a few nations that backed Trump’s decision in December to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Paraguay has said it will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of May.

Prior to 1980, Guatemala and a dozen other countries maintained embassies in Jerusalem.

Israel’s passage in June 1980 of a law proclaiming Jerusalem its “indivisible and eternal capital” led to a UN Security Council resolution calling on Guatemala and other countries to move their embassies to Tel AVIV.REUTERS