“Thank you very much for the strong embrace. The friendship between us will last forever,” Guatemala’s Morales told Netanyahu.
Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, joined an Israeli diplomatic mission to Guatemala and participated in several events marking Israeli assistance to the country.
Upon arriving at Guatemala’s international airport, Sara was greeted by Israel’s Ambassador Mattanya Aharon Cohen and Guatemala’s Deputy Foreign Minister Jairo Estrada, and was honored with a short musical performance.
Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday night spoke by telephone with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales following the launch event for the health campaign in which Morales and his wife Patricia participated along with Sara and a Foreign Ministry delegation.
Netanyahu thanked Morales for the warm reception for his wife and told him that he “remembers well” their conversation of a year ago in which Morales informed him of the transfer of the Guatemalan Embassy to Jerusalem.
Guatemala moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem two days after the US made the historic, the first country to do so.
While many countries have Jerusalem streets, Guatemala is the only nation with streets recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Netanyahu told Morales that “we are moved by your and Patricia’s friendship and that of the Guatemalan people. This is a marvelous and splendid friendship that has continued for 70 years.”
He further commended the “important projects the launches of which Sara is participating in together with you. Jimmy, thank you very much.”
Morales replied that “we are moved by the honor we have regarding Sara’s visit and that of the Israeli delegation. Thank you very much for the strong embrace. The friendship between us will last forever.”
Relations between Israel and Guatemala have been significantly strengthened over the past year, including several meetings between Morales and Netanyahu, with talk of a possible visit by the Israeli president to Guatemala in 2019.
