{"id":13979,"date":"2018-09-05T22:24:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T22:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13979"},"modified":"2018-09-05T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T22:24:02","slug":"paraguay-returns-its-embassy-in-israel-back-to-tel-aviv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13979","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay returns its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Paraguay will return its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, reversing a contentious decision months ago to move the diplomatic site to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

“Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, Israel announced it will close its embassy in Paraguay and recall its ambassador, the Haaretz newspaper quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as saying.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians, meanwhile, will “immediately” open an embassy in Paraguay, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.<\/p>\n

Maliki hailed Paraguay’s change of mind as “a new Palestinian diplomatic achievement”.<\/p>\n

Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes traveled to Jerusalem to inaugurate the embassy in May. But Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, also a member of the conservative Colorado party, took office last month and reversed the decision.<\/p>\n

In December, US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing decades of American policy and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies. It opened a new embassy in the city on May 14. Two days later, Guatemala also opened its embassy in Jerusalem.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Irresponsible leader’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The decision by the three countries was hailed as a political victory by Israel as it presses other countries to recognise Jerusalem as its capital.<\/p>\n

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Deadliest Gaza protests in weeks amid US embassy move<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

But the relocations drew Palestinian and\u00a0international anger<\/a>. Deadly protests in Gaza and the West Bank also took place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Palestinian leaders see\u00a0East Jerusalem<\/a>\u00a0as the capital of their future state and said Trump’s move disqualifies Washington as a peace mediator.<\/p>\n

Previous US presidents, as well as nearly every other country, refrained from opening embassies in\u00a0Jerusalem, saying the city’s final status should first be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.<\/p>\n

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), had condemned the opening of the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

“We have witnessed today how the Paraguayan president is an irresponsible political leader by defying international law and the achievement of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” he said.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has attempted to persuade other countries to follow the US’ lead.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday – while meeting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov – Netanyahu said: “I appreciate your decision to open an honorary consulate in Jerusalem, and I hope, I hope, I hope it’s the first step towards establishing the Bulgarian embassy in Jerusalem.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paraguay will return its embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv, reversing a contentious decision months ago to move the diplomatic site to Jerusalem. “Paraguay wants to contribute to an intensification of regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a broad, fair and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Foreign Minister Luis Alberto Castiglioni said on Wednesday.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}