The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Honduras has announced that it will consider returning the country's embassy in Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, about a year after moving it to the capital.
The move is apparently related to the change of government in Honduras, in which the left-wing candidate Xiamara Castro was elected president.
"The issue of moving the embassy to Tel Aviv has already been discussed with President Castro and it is a focus of interest for her, as well as the desire to maintain a balanced relationship with Arab countries and the people of Israel," said Honduran Foreign Minister Henrique Reyna, after a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.
He added that the decision whether to return the embassy to Tel Aviv will also take into account the "restoration of respect for the norms of international law as required by the United Nations".
The previous president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, is a right-wing man who considered himself a close ally of the US, and was characterized by a long history of sympathy for Israel. He decided to move the Honduran embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem following the American decision to move the US embassy to the capital, which was accepted by President Trump in 2018.
In return, Israel reopened its embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
The embassy was closed in 1995 due to cuts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and since then the Israeli ambassador to Guatemala was also in charge of the country's representation in neighboring Honduras.
The opening of the embassy in Jerusalem: Bennett meets with Honduran President Hernandez / Photo: Itay Beit On/ L.A.M., Sound: Nir Sharaf/ L.A.M. / Archive
As of today, only the USA, Honduras, Guatemala and Kosovo maintain their embassies in Israel in Jerusalem, while the other countries have left them in Tel Aviv. Several countries, including the Czech Republic, maintain branches of their embassies or other political representation in Jerusalem. A few months ago, Suriname announced On her intention to establish a new embassy in Israel and place it in the capital, however she later retracted it citing "economic considerations".
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