Honduras on Thursday opened its embassy in contested Jerusalem, becoming the fourth country to follow the U.S. move under former President Donald Trump to relocate its chief diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv.
To mark the occasion, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Israel’s new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett signed several bilateral cooperation agreements in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Israel views the entire city as its unified capital, while the Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. The rival claims were at the heart of the unrest in April and May that eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
The U.S. inaugurated its embassy in the city in 2018, and Guatemala, Kosovo and Honduras followed suit. Paraguay opened its embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, but then reversed course months later. Most countries maintain embassies in Tel Aviv because of Jerusalem’s disputed status — one of the thorniest issues in the Mideast conflict.