Mexico Rebukes Israel over Netanyahu Wall Tweet
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Mexico's government rebuked Israel for a tweet by Israeli regime’s Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that appeared to applaud US President Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall with Mexico to keep out immigrants.
Netanyahu said on Twitter earlier on Saturday: "President Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel's southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea."
The comment was swiftly rejected by leaders of the Jewish community in Mexico, and prompted an unusually blunt statement from Mexico's foreign ministry.
"The Foreign Ministry expressed to the government of Israel, via its ambassador in Mexico, its profound astonishment, rejection and disappointment over Prime Minister Netanyahu's message on Twitter about the construction of a border wall," the ministry's statement, Reuters reported.
Mexico's government and Trump have been locked in a bitter dispute over his election campaign promise to build a wall on the US southern border that he says Mexico will pay for. Mexico has repeatedly said it will not pay for the wall.
The Central Committee of the Jewish Community in Mexico issued a statement saying it "forcefully rejected" Netanyahu's comment, while several prominent Mexicans of Jewish origin sharply criticized the regime’s leader on Twitter.
On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a visit to meet Trump next week after the American advised him to forgo the trip if he was not willing to pay for the wall.
The leaders pledged to work out their differences in a call on Friday morning, and the Mexican government said the two had agreed not to discuss the issue of payment for now.
