Brazil said Thursday it will become the second country to move its embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel to Jerusalem, after the U.S. made the change last May.
“The decision is taken, it’s only a matter of when it will be implemented,” Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said in a TV interview.
The new president said “the only weighty voice speaking out against me is Iran.” He said some “more radical” Arab countries “might adopt some sort of sanction — I hope only economic ones — against us” as payback.
Bolsonaro represents the far-right party in the South American country. He promised as a candidate to move the embassy.
Israeli Economic Minister Eli Cohen previously said the move would improve trade between both nations and “usher in a new era of political and economic tries with the the largest country in South America.”
Trump’s decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was seen as controversial. Israeli forces have controlled all of Jerusalem since 1967, when they seized East Jerusalem — including the Old City containing the sites revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims — during the Six-Day War. Palestinian officials want to establish their the capital of any future state that emerges from peace talks in Jerusalem.
Leaders from Moldova and Honduras have also indicated they may change the location of their embassies.
Guatemala in December 2017 announced plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem, just two days after the U.S. embassy opened its doors.
Moldova President Igor Dodon visited Israel in December and said last week he would “very seriously consider” moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
Moldova’s consideration comes as its relations with the European Union, which opposes nations moving embassies to Jerusalem, grows more tense.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo talked about Honduras making the change at Bolsonaro’s inauguration, according to a Wednesday report.
A total 158 of the 193 other countries in the world have diplomatic relations with Israel. Eighty-six of those have embassies in Tel Aviv.
Paraguay said initially it would move its embassy, but it rescinded the move three months later.
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