Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday he intends to follow through on his campaign promise to move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, just as President Trump did earlier this year.
“As previously stated during our campaign, we intend to transfer the Brazilian Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. Israel is a sovereign state and we shall duly respect that,” Bolsonaro wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.
Bolsonaro represents the far-right party in the South American country. He won the presidential election on Sunday.
Israeli Economic Minister Eli Cohen 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 a show of support to the country’s Jewish population.
The eastern region of Israel, which contains Jerusalem, was annexed following the 1967 Middle East war.
Iraeli 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 recover East Jerusalem as the capital of any future state that emerges from peace talks.
