The Argentine president, Javier Milei, assured this Tuesday, February 6, from Israel, that he will move the Argentine embassy to Jerusalem. During his first day of visiting Israel, he also met with his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, and visited the Western Wall, the holiest place of worship in Judaism.
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After landing, this Tuesday, February 6, at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, where he was received by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, the president of Argentina, Javier Milei, confirmed that he will move his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
If confirmed, Argentina would join countries such as the United States, Guatemala and Honduras, as a gesture of firm support for Israel.
Praise of Israel and rejection of Hamas
The announcement of the change of embassy generated, on the one hand, praise from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, February 7and, on the other, the rejection of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which Milei has said he will declare a terrorist organization.
In his meeting with the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, Milei detailed that he is preparing a bill to be voted on in the Argentine Congress and in which the release of the more than one hundred hostages held by Hamas in Gaza is demanded.
“The important decision to make your first official state visit as president precisely to Israel, at this difficult and challenging time, indicates above all that you are a great leader and a true friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” Herzog told Milei during their meeting in Jerusalem.
“The deep friendship and strategic partnership between Argentina and Israel is known to everyone and has remained firm for many years,” added the Israeli president.
For its part, Hamas condemned Milei's announcement:
“We strongly condemn and deplore the announcement by the president of Argentina of his intention to move his country's embassy in the Nazi-Zionist entity (Israel) to Jerusalem,” Hamas said in a statement.
The Argentine president also visited the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem this Tuesday, accompanied by numerous rabbis, among them Axel Wahnish, whom he wants to appoint as Argentine ambassador to Israel.
The president participated in the lighting of a candle in tribute to the victims of the October 7 attack by Hamas, and then headed to pray in front of Judaism's holiest place of worship.
In front of the wall, and already crying, he hugged Wahnish for more than 12 seconds and the two kissed the Wailing Wall.
Hundreds of people gathered around the security fences and with shouts of “Javier, we love you”, “freedom” or “we are leaving”, they supported the arrival of Milei, who, despite not giving statements to the press, did shake hands and took 'selfies' with some of the curious, including Argentine Jewish students.
In addition to meeting with Netanyahu, Milei will meet with Israeli businessmen on Wednesday, February 7, and will visit the Holocaust Museum, in whose Forest of Remembrance he will plant a tree.
On Thursday, the Argentine president's last day in Israel, he will visit Nir Oz, located a few kilometers from Gaza and which was the target of the Hamas attack on October 7, where a large community of Argentine-Israelis lived.
With EFE
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