Dec. 24 (UPI) — Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced on Sunday that he will move his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
In a statement on Facebook, Morales said that the return of the Guatemalan embassy to Jerusalem was one of the most important themes he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talked about during a recent conversation, and he ordered his Chancellor to begin the process.
The announcement comes soon after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to move the American embassy out of Tel Aviv, where all embassies are currently located, to Jerusalem. Some analysts have criticized Trump’s decision because of an international consensus to avoid recognizing the ancient city as the capital of Israel as peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis are ongoing.
Guatemala is the first country to follow Trump’s lead on moving embassies to Jerusalem, but the Czech Republic is also considering a move, according to the Guardian.
Morales’ announcement comes days after his country was one of only seven nations to vote against a United Nations resolution that urged the United States to reverse its decision to move its embassy, the BBC reported.
Trump threatened to cut off U.S. funding to countries that voted in favor of the resolution.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us,” he told reporters at the White House last week. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”
