Lebanon Praises Paraguay for Moving Embassy Back to Tel Aviv

The Foreign Ministry in Lebanon welcomed on Thursday the decision of Paraguay to move its embassy back to Tel Aviv, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The Ministry voiced calls upon all states that had taken the same decision to “follow Paraguay’s example and reconsider its decision, in respect of international legality and the resolutions of the United Nations in this regard.”

Paraguay's new President Mario Abdo Benitez decided on Wednesday to move the embassy in Israel back from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

His move has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the closure of his country's mission in the South American country in retaliation.

The original decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv was taken by Abdo Benitez's predecessor Horacio Cartes shortly after President Donald Trump had announced the United States would relocate its own embassy to Jerusalem.

Trump broke with decades of US policy by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, infuriating Palestinians and intensifying protests on the Gaza border, with 60 killed in clashes with Israeli forces that day.