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by Sharon Wrobel
Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Alon Ushpiz looks on during a February 25, 2021 meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Reception House. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs/TASS
Chile’s acting foreign minister apologized to Israeli officials on Saturday night for holding off the accreditation of the country’s new ambassador to Santiago.
Chile’s Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ximena Fuentes Torrijo on Saturday called Israel’s Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz and apologized as the country’s incoming Ambassador to Chile, Gil Artzyeli, was denied the opportunity to submit his credentials as scheduled on Sept. 15.
The credentials ceremony has been rescheduled to Sept. 13, when Artzyeli will present his credentials to Chilean President Gabriel Boric.
The Chilean official told Ushpiz that the ties with Israel are important to Chile and that the country is interested in maintaining warm relations, according to a statement from Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
The apology comes a week after Boric put off accepting Artzyeli’s credentials until October over the killing in the West Bank of a Palestinian teenager, which triggered a diplomatic spat between the two countries.
Chile’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the decision to postpone the credentials ceremony “must be understood within the framework of the political sensitivity generated by the death of a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager, in the north of the West Bank, during an operation by the Israeli army, which occurred the same day of the presentation.”
In response, Israel‘s foreign ministry summoned Chilean ambassador Jorge Carvajal, describing the move as “puzzling and unprecedented behavior.”
Ushpiz welcomed the apology, calling the last-minute deferral a “serious incident that could have caused serious damage to relations between Israel and Chile.”
In reaction, Artzyeli spoke of “a new beginning, further strengthening bilateral relations for the good of the two peoples.”
At the same time, Chile’s government stated that it was an “exceptional” move and reiterated its “permanent willingness to maintain a fraternal and constructive relationship with Israel and its people based on respect, dialogue and cooperation.”
