Arab League severs ties with Guatemala over embassy move

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the inauguration ceremony of the inauguration ceremony of Guatemala’s embassy in Jerusalem on May 16, 2018. Guatemala inaugurated its Israel embassy in Jerusalem on May 15, becoming the first country to follow in the footsteps of the United States’ deeply controversial move, breaking with decades of international consensus. (AFP)

CAIRO: The Arab League says it will no longer cooperate on any level with Guatemala because of the country’s decision to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Cairo-based organization says Wednesday it has abandoned a memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 and has severed relations with the South American country.
Guatemala moved its embassy to Jerusalem earlier this month, following the inauguration of the US Embassy in disputed Jerusalem.
Guatemala was the first country to put its embassy in Jerusalem, in 1956. It moved the facility 24 years later to Tel Aviv, after the Israeli parliament declared Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital in contravention of a United Nations resolution.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.