Paraguay opens embassy in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM - Paraguay opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem Monday, becoming the third country to do so following the United States and Guatemala.

Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, who arrived in Israel Sunday evening, opened the embassy along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Malha Technological Park, the same building in which Guatemala opened its embassy in Jerusalem last week.

On May 14, the United Stated opened its embassy in what Israel claims to be the capital of the Jewish country --Jerusalem. Wide-spread protests broke out in West Bank cities and Gaza. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 60 were killed and over 3,000 wounded due to clashes with the Israeli Defense Forces.

Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War, along with the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It later annexed East Jerusalem and declared it as part of its "eternal and indivisible capital," in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

Palestinians, who make up more than one third of the city's overall population, consider East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

The peace talks between Palestine and Israel have been stalled since April 2014. The US-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved no tangible results.