Honduras will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem by the end of June, joining the United States in the historic decision to open a diplomatic post in Israel’s capital.
Senior adviser to the Israeli minister of regional cooperation David Aaronson tweeted Tuesday celebrating Honduras's decision to move its mission to Jerusalem.
Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado will arrive in Israel on June 23, according to Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom.
Hernández announced in 2019 that the Latin American country would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but the move was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and Israeli political changes. Israel will in turn open its own embassy in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.
Honduras will become the fourth country to open an embassy in Jerusalem, after Kosovo, Guatemala, and the United States. Both Kosovo and Guatemala followed in the footsteps of the United States, which made the move in 2018.
Though the United States' move was excoriated by Democrats at the time, the Trump administration's foreign policy leaders consider it to have been the first step in forging the historic Abraham Accords, a peace deal reached between Israel and Gulf countries brokered by the United States. The Biden administration has backed away from the accords, canceling a summit to further the peace deal’s agenda that was set to take place in Washington.