Pictured Above: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President of Paraguay Horacio Cartes (left) at the official opening ceremony of the Paraguay embassy in Jerusalem on May 21, 2018. Photo by Amos Ben Gershom/GPO.

(JNS) The White House issued a statement on Tuesday night, praising Paraguay for relocating its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were in attendance at the May 21 inauguration, just five days after the Guatemalan embassy opening in Jerusalem, and a week after America became the first country to move its embassy to Jerusalem in an internationally televised event.

“We thank our Western Hemisphere partner for joining us in recognizing Israel’s capital and encouraging additional moves,” the statement said. “By being the first head of state to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to open an embassy there on May 14, 2018, President [Donald] Trump reprised the role President [Harry Truman played 70 years ago when he was the first to recognize the State of Israel.”

The statement concluded that the United States hopes to welcome “many more of our friends and allies in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.”

The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, blasted Paraguay for the move, which they called “illegal, illegitimate, an act of aggression against the Palestinian people and their rights, a violation of relevant United Nations resolutions and international law, and submission to American and Israeli dictates and bribes."

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