Al Jazeera: 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, 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.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, will “immediately” open an embassy in Paraguay, Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, according to the official news agency Wafa.
Al-Maliki hailed Paraguay’s change of mind as “a new Palestinian diplomatic achievement”.
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.
“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.
“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.
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