Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández graduated from an Israeli leadership course from the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, or Mashav, in 1992 at the beginning of his diplomatic career.
Under his leadership, Honduras became one of the two countries in Latin America, and one of the five in the world, to most often abstain from resolutions opposed by Israel. On December 2017, Honduras was one of the small number of countries that joined Israel in voting against the UN resolution that opposed the US moving its Embassy to Jerusalem.
Israel and Honduras announced that they will open and inaugurate before the end of this year their embassies in the national capitals, Tegucigalpa and Jerusalem.
The announcement was made after a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.
They reaffirmed that Honduras and Israel ‘’are close friends and strategic allies who form part of an alliance of reciprocal support and both economic and political cooperation,’’ the statement said.
President Hernández congratulated Prime Minister Netanyahu on the historic peace agreements with the EAU and Bahrein, known as the Abraham Accords, part of the peaceful transformation of that region, and offered best wishes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year 5781.
Netanyahu expressed his ‘’appreciation for the authentic friendship and steadfast support Israel has received from Honduras’’ and reiterated his country’s commitment to strengthen this partnership through development, cooperation, tourism, investment, technology, agriculture, education and trade.
Last Jaunary, the United States, Israel and Honduras issued a joint statement following the trilateral meeting held in Brasilia, Brazil, between the U.S Secretary of state Michael R. Pompeo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Honduran president. The countries “agreed to strengthen political relations and coordinate cooperation on development in Honduras” and further “agreed to pursue a plan of action, which includes meetings in their three respective capitals, to advance the process of the decision to open embassies in both Tegucigalpa and Jerusalem”.
Hernandez graduated from an Israeli leadership course from the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, or Mashav, in 1992 at the beginning of his diplomatic career.
Under his leadership, Honduras became one of the two countries in Latin America, and one of the five in the world, to most often abstain from resolutions opposed by Israel. On December 2017, Honduras was one of the small number of countries that joined Israel in voting against the UN resolution that opposed the US moving its Embassy to Jerusalem.