{"id":14023,"date":"2018-09-06T06:26:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T06:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14023"},"modified":"2018-09-06T06:26:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T06:26:02","slug":"paraguay-returns-its-embassy-in-israel-to-tel-aviv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14023","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay returns its embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Paraguay will return its embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, reversing a contentious decision taken months ago by the previous government.<\/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.<\/p>\n

In response, Israel<\/a> announced it will close its embassy in Paraguay<\/a> 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

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

Paraguay’s former President Horacio Cartes travelled 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

“So much for the everlasting friendship between Paraguay and Israel, professed by Benjamin Netanyahu … in May, when Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes decided to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said.<\/p>\n

“At that time many people couldn’t find a logical explanation [for that decision], there has been very, strong speculation that there might have been an economic incentive.<\/p>\n

“But now there is a new president, Mario Abdo .. [and] he says he is putting things back to where they were, he says that he wants Paraguay to contribute to regional efforts to help bring about a diplomatic and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East.”<\/p>\n

“Paraguay is a country of principle,” Abdo said on Twitter. “We will always be respectful with international law,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Paraguay es un pa\u00eds de principios. El esp\u00edritu de la decisi\u00f3n anunciada es que los pueblos de Israel y Palestina logren alcanzar una paz amplia, justa y duradera. Siempre seremos respetuosos del derecho internacional.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Marito Abdo (@MaritoAbdo) September 5, 2018<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In December, US President Donald Trump recognised\u00a0Jerusalem as Israel’s capital<\/a>, reversing decades of American policy and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies. The US opened a new embassy in the city on May 14. Two days later, Guatemala also opened its embassy in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

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

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

\n

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

Paraguay will return its embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, reversing a contentious decision taken months ago by the previous government. “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. In response,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14023","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\/14023","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=14023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}