Rabat, the capital of Morocco, has shelved plans to for a twin city partnership with Guatemala City in protest against Guatemala's transfer of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Rabat's deputy mayor said on Saturday.
"Following Guatemala's decision to establish an embassy in Al-Quds [Jerusalem], Rabat's city council unanimously decided to suspend the examination of a twinning project with Guatemala City in solidarity with the Palestinian people," said Deputy Mayor Lahcen El Amrani, of the Islamist PJD party.
Guatemala opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, two days after the United States inaugurated its embassy there, a move that infuriated Palestinians and drew international condemnation.
Palestinians envision part of Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and assert that the city's status can only be defined in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. By placing embassies in the city, the U.S. and Guatemala have officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a move the Palestinians view as unfairly biased in favor of Israel.
The Rabat city council had previously planned to vote on a twinning project with Guatemala City last week. Guatemala established an embassy in Rabat, its second in Africa, in November 2017.
