The Guatemalan Embassy in Israel on Tuesday raised the Guatemalan flag over the Embassy's new building in the Malha neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The official ceremony marking the moving of the Embassy to Jerusalem will take place on May 16, two days after the U.S. Embassy relocates to the capital.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday evening that he is "excited to see the Guatemalan flag flying in Jerusalem ahead of the opening of the Embassy this month. Dear friends, welcome back to our eternal capital!"
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales confirmed at the AIPAC Policy Conference in March that his country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on May 16.
Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel later defended her country's "sovereign" decision to relocate its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
"We are doing the right thing in accordance with the foreign policy that Guatemala has had toward Israel over the past 70 years," Jovel said, adding that the move is "a sovereign decision of Guatemalan foreign policy.”