"We are going to suspend coal exports to Israel until the genocide stops," Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a post on X on Saturday, Xinhua reported.
He also posted a draft decree, which said that coal exports would only resume if the regime complied with a recent order by the International Court of Justice that mandated that Tel Aviv withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip.
The draft decree shared by Petro will be published by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism on its website between June 11 and 17 for comments before entering into force.
Official data show that Colombia exported 447 million U.S. dollars of coal to Israel in 2023, a 57 percent drop from 2022, while in the first four months of 2024, 88 million dollars of coal was exported to Israel.
Since the beginning of Israeli aggression in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, relations between Colombia and Israel have grown more tense. Petro repeatedly criticized Israel and called on other Latin American countries to join Colombia in condemning Israel.
In a speech on May 1, Petro announced Colombia's severance of diplomatic relations with Israel.
More than 36,801 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the war on Gaza that began by Zionist regime after Al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.
SD/PR
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