Guatemala has explained its decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“The decision was taken without pressure from the United States,” Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel told reporters.
She said it amounted to “a foreign policy decision, therefore sovereign.”
Jovel said Tuesday that there is no intention to reverse the decision.
“What we are doing is being coherent with our foreign policy and the ally we have been for Israel.”
On Monday, the Ministry said it had begun working on moving the embassy.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the presidential order and is starting the process of implementing this foreign policy decision,” it said in a statement.
President Jimmy Morales announced the plan to move the country’s embassy on Sunday, following in the controversial footsteps of US President Donald Trump.
Both the United States and Israel have welcomed Guatemala’s plans.
Meanwhile, Business analysts have warned however that the measure could lead to a downturn in exports of cardamom from Guatemala to Arab countries.
The expensive spice is one of the country’s main agricultural exports.
Former Guatemalan vice president Eduardo Stein warned that “almost 350,000 families or two million people linked to cardamom would be left without work” by the move.
“I imagine that President (Jimmy) Morales and his advisers will have carefully weighed the risk of that internal damage, not only for our economy but for small producers,” Stein said in a radio interview.
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