Sierra Leone and Papua Guinea to open embassies in Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone have announced they will be opening embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, CBN News reports.

The United States under former President Donald Trump was the first country to take this step, moving the US Israeli Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. Guatemala, Honduras, and Kosovo have since followed suit.

The office of Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio announced Friday that the West African country is ready to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, CBN reports. In a statement on the X social media platform, the PM’s office wrote: “His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio had a progressive telephone conversation with @elicoh1, the Foreign Minister of the State of #Israel, today, August 24, 2023. They discussed the warm relations between both countries that dates back to 1961 when #SierraLeone gained independence.”

“As part of efforts to strengthen the relationship between the two nations, His Excellency @PresidentBio expressed his government’s readiness to establish an Embassy of Sierra Leone in #Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel,” the statement read.

Just three days after the Sierra Leone announcement, Papua New Guinea confirmed its new embassy will be inaugurated in Jerusalem on September 5th during a visit by PNG President James Marape, Reuters reported. The South Pacific island nation has not had a diplomatic presence in Israel until now.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has a meeting with Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Marape scheduled on the same day as the inauguration of the PNG embassy, CBN reports.

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