Nicaragua announces breaking ties with Israel
Oct 12, 2024
Managua [Nicaragua], October 12 : Latin American country Nicaragua has announced that it will break diplomatic relations with Israel, Al Jazeera reported.
The geographically largest country of Latin America, on October 11 made the decision public when the Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the move to state media after Nicaragua's Congress passed a resolution calling for action after the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war on October 7.
This adds to Israel's growing isolation on the global stage amid the conflict.
Al Jazeera noted that Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega's wife, said her husband instructed the government to "sever diplomatic relations with the fascist and genocidal government of Israel".
The announcement is largely a symbolic one, since Israel does not have a resident ambassador in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua and relations between the two nations are nearly nonexistent, Al Jazeera observed.
Nicaragua now joins the list of various other Latin American countries such as Colombia, Chile and Bolivia who have cut their relations with Israel in context with the conflict going on in West Asia.
It has been known that countries with traditionally leftist political ideology in Latin America have routinely showed support for the Palestinian cause.
The Nicaraguan government condemned Israel's war in Gaza on Friday and said the fighting now "extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran".
The Palestinian mission to the United Nations announced on Friday that those three nations had helped spearhead a letter of support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whom Israel declared persona non grata last week, Al Jazeera noted.
The move by Nicaragua falls in line with its previous endavours to show support for de-escalating the war in middle east. Earlier this year in April, Nicaraguan government headed by Daniel Ortega had submitted a request to the International Court of Justice to halt German arms sales to Israel,however the case was rejected.
