Equatorial Guinea to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo inspects a guard of honor upon his arrival at the presidential airport in Abuja, Nigeria, May 28, 2015. (Reuters)

• President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced the planned move in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
• Equatorial Guinea is only the second African country to announce it will relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following Malawi

JERUSALEM: Equatorial Guinea is to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Friday, following the controversial lead of former US president Donald Trump.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema announced the planned move in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, Netanyahu’s office said.
The embassy is currently located in Herzliya, just outside the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv.
Equatorial Guinea is only the second African country to announce it will relocate its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following Malawi in November.
Breaking with a longstanding international consensus against recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital until the Palestinian conflict is resolved, Trump in December 2017 recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announced he would move the US embassy.
Trump’s successor, President Joe Biden, has said he does not intend to overturn the relocation, which was carried out in May 2018.
Israel considers the holy city its eternal, indivisible capital, but the Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the Six-Day War of 1967, as the capital of their future state.
Three African countries — Ivory Coast, Kenya and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) — have had embassies in Jerusalem in the past but all moved them after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.