Iran welcomes Nicaragua’s courageous decision to cut ties with Israel

Iran has welcomed the “courageous” decision of the Nicaraguan government to cut diplomatic relations with Israel over the occupying regime’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.  In a statement on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the move is a sign of Nicaragua’s commitment to the principles of international law, the United Nations Charter, and international documents related to the prevention and combating of genocide.

Pointing to the perseverance of the government and people of Nicaragua against the economic sanctions and political pressures of the United States, Baghaei said the Latin American country’s “condemnation of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the aggression of the occupying regime against Lebanon is commendable.”

He stressed the need for other countries to join the campaign of cutting ties with Israel and the mobilization of the international community to stop the regime’s “wickedness” and “war-mongering.”

Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo announced the rupture of diplomatic ties with the Tel Aviv regime on Friday after the Central American nation’s Congress passed a resolution calling for action following the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war.

Murillo, who is President Daniel Ortega’s wife, said her husband instructed the government to sever diplomatic relations with the “fascist” and “genocidal” Israeli regime.  Baghaei expressed hopes that the “courageous” and “responsible” action of the Nicaraguan government, which follows a similar action by the countries of Bolivia and Colombia in the Americas, will be “a model for other countries to perform their legal and moral obligations against the Zionist regime’s occupation and genocide.”

The rupture of diplomatic relations comes at a time when Israel is under growing isolation on the global stage amid a brutal campaign in Gaza and expanding attacks across West Asia, including in Lebanon.  Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 42,175 Palestinians and injured another 98,336 individuals. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, at least 1,645 people have been killed since Israel escalated attacks on Lebanon in September, while a total of 2,255 have now died after a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces.