The president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Thursday night and promised to open the embassy for his country in Jerusalem.
Israel has maintained relations with Sierra Leone since that country's independence in 1961.
In the phone call, Bio referred to the "warm relations" between the two countries, and told Cohen that in light of those ties, Sierra Leone is willing to establish its embassy in Jerusalem, "the capital of the State of Israel."
The West African nation does not yet have an embassy in Israel, nor does Israel maintain an embassy in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
If Sierra Leone does establish an embassy in Jerusalem, it would be the sixth country to do so, after the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, and Paraguay.
Earlier this year, Cohen met with incoming Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, who promised to return his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Cohen promised Peña that Israel would reopen its embassy in Asunción, after closing it five years ago.
Paraguay first moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, under President Horacio Cartes. It was located next to the Guatemalan embassy.
However, the embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv under President Abdo Benítez, who claimed that "Paraguay wants to contribute to increasing regional diplomatic efforts to achieve a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then ordered the recall of the Israeli ambassador and the closing of the embassy in Asunción.
Israel has been trying to strengthen its relations with African countries, as it seeks to increase its global diplomatic efforts, and tries to reverse the break in relations following the Yom Kippur War.
Following the Abraham Accords, Israel has renewed ties with many African nations, often based on Israeli aid with medicine, technology, and water engineering projects. It was recently granted observer status at the African Union, though that has provoked some opposition from African countries with strong Arab ties.
This article originally appeared on All Israel News and is reposted with permission.