Netanyahu says Brazil is committed to moving its embassy to Jerusalem in 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he has been given assurances by the son of Brazil's president that Brazil will follow the United States and move its embassy to Jerusalem next year.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had signalled before that he intended to move his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, but senior officials later backtracked for fear of endangering Brazil's valuable meat exports to Arab markets, AFP said.
Still, on Sunday Brazil opened a trade office in Jerusalem in a ceremony attended by Bolsonaro's son and by Netanyahu.
Speaking at the ceremony, Eduardo Bolsonaro, also a politician, said his father intended to make good on the pledge he made early this year to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem, Reuters reported.
"He told me that for sure - it's a commitment - he's going to move the embassy to Jerusalem, he's going to do that," the younger Bolsonaro said, in Netanyahu's presence. He did not give a date.
Netanyahu later issued a statement saying he met with Eduardo Bolsonaro, who told him they had "committed to move Brazil's embassy to Jerusalem in 2020".
Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, while Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of their own future state.
Virtually all countries maintain their embassies in the city of Tel Aviv, insisting that Jerusalem's status be defined through Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
US President Donald Trump broke with that decades-long consensus in May 2018 by relocating the American embassy to Jerusalem, with only Guatemala following suit so far. Paraguay made the move but later backtracked. Hungary has also opened a trade office in Jerusalem.
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