Israeli Foreign Minister Gidon Sa’ar on Wednesday hosted in Jerusalem senior diplomats from Japan and Equatorial Guinea, underscoring Israel’s diplomatic outreach in both Asia and Africa amid the ongoing Gaza war.

Sa’ar first hosted Japanese Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Matsumoto Hisashi, praising the two countries’ long-standing friendship and strategic cooperation. Posting on X, he expressed appreciation in both Hebrew and Japanese, saying, “I am grateful for the long-standing friendship between Israel and Japan.”

In the same post, Sa’ar criticized recent announcements by some governments of their intention to recognize a “virtual Palestinian state,” as he termed it, calling the moves a reward for Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre and a blow to the chances of securing a hostage releas

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