JERUSALEM (AA)

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced on Wednesday that the island nation of Nauru intends to open an embassy in occupied Jerusalem.

Sa'ar, speaking on the American platform X, thanked Nauru's President David Adeang and Vice President, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Justice Lionel Aingimea for the cabinet's decision last month to open an embassy in Jerusalem.

Sa'ar claimed that Jerusalem is the 'capital of Israel'.

Palestinians insist on East Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state, based on international legitimacy resolutions that do not recognize Israel's occupation of the city in 1967 or its annexation in 1980.

Sa'ar added that the Nauru embassy will be the tenth in Jerusalem, and the fifth since he took office (in November 2024), after reaching an agreement last week with Colombia's newly appointed foreign minister on a similar move.

He described Nauru as a 'true friend of Israel' and said that opening the embassy would help strengthen relations between the two sides.

He added that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would provide the necessary support to open the embassy 'as soon as possible'.

Nauru is an island in the South Pacific, with an area of 21 square kilometers and a population of about 12,000.

Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world.

Currently, there are embassies in Jerusalem from the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and the so-called breakaway region of 'Somaliland,' which is not internationally recognized.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of countries oppose opening embassies in occupied Jerusalem.

Israel is making intensive efforts to mend its foreign relations amid popular and official anger worldwide over the genocide war it has been waging with U.S. support in the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023.

The genocide war has resulted in more than 73,000 Palestinian deaths and about 174,000 wounded, mostly children and women, and the destruction of 90 percent of infrastructure, with a reconstruction cost estimated by the United Nations at about $70 billion.

In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is also considering a case filed by South Africa, joined by several other countries, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

In 1948, Israel was established on lands seized by armed Zionist gangs that committed massacres and displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians; Tel Aviv then occupied the rest of Palestinian territories and refuses to withdraw and allow the establishment of a Palestinian state as stipulated in UN resolutions.