Nicaragua breaks diplomatic ties with Israel amid ongoing Gaza war

In a largely symbolic move, the Ortega government condemned Israel’s leaders as ‘fascist’ and ‘genocidal’ over Gaza war.

The government of Nicaragua has announced that it will break diplomatic relations with Israel, adding to the country’s growing isolation on the global stage amid its war in Gaza.

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the move to state media on Friday after the country’s Congress passed a resolution calling for action after the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war on October 7.

Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega’s wife, said her husband instructed the government to “sever diplomatic relations with the fascist and genocidal government of Israel”.

The announcement is largely a symbolic one, since Israel does not have a resident ambassador in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua and relations between the two nations are nearly nonexistent.

Still, the announcement comes at a time when Israel is under growing diplomatic scrutiny amid a brutal campaign in Gaza and expanding attacks across the Middle East, including in Lebanon.

The death toll in Gaza has spiralled past 42,000 people, and thousands more have been killed in the bombing campaign in Lebanon, many in the last few weeks.

The Nicaraguan government condemned Israel’s war in Gaza on Friday and said the fighting now “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran”.

Opposition to the Gaza war has been relatively widespread in Latin America, where leftist leaders in countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Chile have emerged as outspoken critics of Israel.

The Palestinian mission to the United Nations announced on Friday that those three nations had helped spearhead a letter of support for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whom Israel declared persona non grata last week.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro cut diplomatic ties with Israel in May, calling the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “genocidal”. Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also recalled the country’s ambassador to Israel that same month, and he likened the war in Gaza to the Holocaust.

For its part, the Ortega government submitted a request to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt German arms sales to Israel, an effort the court rejected in April.

Nicaragua has faced its own problems with growing diplomatic isolation in Latin America, as Ortega and his allies step up repressive actions against dissidents and opponents of the government.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies