JERUSALEM (AP) — The petite South American nation of Paraguay reopened its embassy in Jerusalem on Thursday, becoming the latest of just a few countries to recognize the hard-fought city as Israel’s capital.
The move represents a welcome diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has seen Israel’s international isolation deepen as the devastating war in Gaza drags on.
Paraguay first moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018 under the pro-Israel government of then-President Horacio Cartes, but reversed its decision months later when a modern government came to power.
The decision by President Santiago Peña, a protégé of Cartes who has followed in his mentor’s footsteps, to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem makes Paraguay the first country to take this step since the October 7 Hamas attack triggered the war last year.
The fate of Jerusalem is one of the most intractable disputes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It is also a controversial move. Israel sees the entire city as its unified capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel annexed East Jerusalem, home to the Old City of holy sites for Jews, Christians and Muslims, in 1967, a move that was not recognized by the international community. Most countries have their embassies from Tel Aviv.
Paraguay now joins the United States, Honduras, Guatemala, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea as countries that have based their embassies in Jerusalem.
At the embassy inauguration ceremony on Thursday, there was high spirits as Netanyahu and Israel’s modern Foreign Minister Gideon Saar showered President Peña with praise.
“My good friend Santiago,” Netanyahu said to Peña. “We are a small nation. You are a small nation. We have suffered terrible things, but we have overcome the adversities of history…we can win and we are winning.”
“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. “It will always remain the capital of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “That will never change.”
The ceremony came at a time when the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has sparked a wave of condemnation of Israel and weakened its international standing.
The world’s top war crimes court issued arrest warrants last month for Netanyahu and his former defense minister, accusing them of crimes against humanity during the war in Gaza. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, over 44,800 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive so far, more than half of them women and children. The ministry does not say how many of them are combatants. The arrest warrants make Netanyahu and Gallant internationally wanted suspects and put them at risk of arrest when traveling abroad.
Nevertheless, Peña invited Netanyahu to visit Paraguay. Netanyahu hung a Jewish mezuzah, a petite scroll with verses from the Torah, at the entrance to the modern Paraguayan embassy.
Israel’s top diplomat Saar said Israel and Paraguay share a “friendship based not only on interests, but also on values and principles.” He said he would soon visit Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, with a delegation from the Israeli private sector. He and Paraguayan Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano signed a series of bilateral agreements at the ceremony.
Peña thanked Netanyahu and said he looked forward to future cooperation with Israel.
“This is very important for you. We realize that this is a very strong statement,” Peña said. “Israel will win, and the countries that stand with Israel, we will win.”
Despite a miniature Jewish community far smaller than neighbors Argentina and Brazil, landlocked Paraguay has become one of Israel’s closest allies in Latin America. The other countries in the region that recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Guatemala and Honduras, have similarly powerful Protestant churches.
Evangelicals, many of whom see Israel’s existence as tied to Bible prophecy, are among the most radical supporters of the Israeli government. In the United States, conservative evangelicals have long inspired the Republican Party’s pro-Israel advocacy.
Paraguay’s conservative leadership has sought to curry favor with former and future U.S. President Donald Trump by strengthening its alliance with Israel and Taiwan – two causes célèbres for Republicans.
Paraguayan Foreign Minister Ramírez Lezcano was among the first foreign dignitaries to meet with Trump after his election victory in November.
Earlier this year, Peña hosted Sen. Marco Rubio — Trump’s choice for secretary of state — in what marked the first visit by a U.S. senator to the landlocked country in four decades.
Peña’s ascension to the presidency in 2023 helped revive Paraguay’s close ties with Israel, years after his predecessor Mario Abdo Benitez closed the Paraguayan embassy in Jerusalem, and prompted Israel to retaliate by temporarily closing its own embassy in Asunción lock.
Under former President Cartes, a powerful cigarette tycoon sanctioned by the Biden administration for corruption, Paraguay immediately followed Trump’s move to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, breaking with decades of policy that the city’s status should be included in peace talks should be decided.
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Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Josh Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.
