Honduras waiting for reciprocity for embassy move

TEGUCIGALPA: Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez said on Friday that his government would transfer its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem once Israel opens an embassy in Tegucigalpa. Right-wing leader Hernandez announced the embassy move in August and a month later opened a commercial office in Jerusalem as an extension to Honduras' Tel Aviv-based embassy.

Moving an embassy to Jerusalem is highly contentious. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. "We're just waiting for the State of Israel, reciprocally as is appropriate diplomatically, to open its office in Tegucigalpa and we'll be transferring our embassy to Jerusalem," said Hernandez.

Traditionally, most diplomatic missions in Israel have been in Tel Aviv as countries maintained a neutral stance over the status of Jerusalem. Israel is currently represented in Honduras by its Guatemala embassy. Guatemala was one of the first countries to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump when he moved his country's embassy to Jerusalem, sparking a rift between Washington and the Palestinian authorities. Hernandez's statement came as Honduras took possession of a warship worth more than $50 million bought from Israel. Venezuela will open a casino where all bets must be placed in the country's ailing "petro" cryptocurrency, President Nicolas Maduro said Friday, overturning a ban on casinos in place since 2011.

Maduro said he had "authorized legal gambling" in petros at the Humboldt Hotel in Caracas and that the resources would be used to finance "health, education, in convertible currency, in foreign currency."