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Guatemala Plans Jerusalem Embassy Move by May

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Guatemalan president expected to announce time-frame for relocation of embassy to Jerusalem, after US says embassy to open this May

The US embassy won’t be the only foreign mission relocating from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this spring.

According to a report Sunday evening by Channel 2, Guatemala, which announced plans to transfer their embassy to the Israel capital city in December following President Donald Trump’s historic recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, is expected to layout the time-frame for the embassy move, with the transfer completed this May.

Last month, the US State Department revealed that it is planning to transfer the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this May, far earlier than previous predictions, which suggested the move would be completed no earlier than late 2019.

To expedite the move, the US will transfer part of the embassy’s operations to a consulate facility already in use in Jerusalem, relocating the ambassador’s office from Tel Aviv to the consulate building. The remaining embassy staff will be transferred to Jerusalem at a later date, after an annex to the current consulate building is prepared for use.

Over the weekend, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has rejected a local lawyer’s attempt to prevent the government from moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, as the US plans to do, a court spokesman said Saturday.

Spokesman Santiago Palomo told AFP that the high court’s five magistrates turned down a request from lawyer Marco Vinicio Mejia, who argued in a petition filed in January that the embassy move was contrary to international law.

In December, President Trump decided to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Seven countries — including Guatemala and Honduras — sided with the United States and Israel on a nonbinding December 21st UN General Assembly resolution rejecting Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales soon followed Trump’s move, making Guatemala the first country to do so.

Morales, who made the announcement on Facebook, said that Guatemala was a nation of “Christian thought,” adding that “Israel is our ally and we must support it.”

In his brief, Mejia argued among other things that an order issued over social media like Facebook carried no legal standing.

The court said in its ruling that “the circumstances” did not make it “advisable” to grant an injunction, though it suggested that the matter was not definitively resolved.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last Wednesday thanked Morales for his support on the Jerusalem question.

Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said she has received calls from the Palestinian Authority asking for Guatemala to reconsider its stance.

But the country’s position, she said, was irreversible.

President Morales, is expected to announce a timetable for the transfer of his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a move that is expected to be completed in May.

Morales was scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington DC, during the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference.

By: David Rosenberg
(INN)

 

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