Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu´s office announced that he left for Brazil on Thursday for the first visit of an Israeli prime minister to the country to attend the inauguration of Brazilian President Jaer Paulsonaro.
On the sidelines of his visit to Israel, Netanyahu will meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chilean President Sebastian Peneira, Honduran President Juan Orlando Ernndis and other officials.
Netanyahu will also meet with the heads of Brazil´s Jewish community.
The Brazilian President, Paulsonaro, announced after his election early November, his intention to transfer the embassy of his country to "Israel" from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, after taking office formally.
In response, Palestine called on Brazil to reverse this decision. The Arab League decided on the 18th of this month to form a delegation to meet with Brazilian officials to stop any decision affecting the status of the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem
An Israeli official told AFP that Netanyahu would return after the inauguration ceremony in the early hours of January 2.
Paulsonaro said he wanted to follow in the footsteps of US President Donald Trump in the transfer of his country´s embassy to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu welcomed this as a "historic" decision, although Paulsonaro later retracted that, saying it was "not yet decided."
And that the Brazilian president is satisfied with his evangelical Christian base, but he may be at risk of commercial reactions from Arab countries, some of which import Brazilian meat.
It seems certain that Netanyahu´s meeting with Pompeo will include talks on Syria following Trump´s decision to withdraw 2,000 US troops from there.
Netanyahu, who is also foreign minister, last year made his first trip to an Israeli prime minister in Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.
Netanyahu seeks to expand diplomatic ties with Israel through technological and defense exports, and is persuading more countries to vote for his country at the United Nations, where it has been repeatedly criticized for how it treats the Palestinians.
