Israel and Venezuela announced on Tuesday that they had renewed consular relations, 17 years after diplomatic ties were severed between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and his Venezuelan counterpart Félix Plasencia agreed to renew consular ties after talks in recent weeks “resulted in an agreement to establish a coordination mechanism that will enable the provision of consular services to citizens of both countries,” Sa’ar’s office said.

The two countries have not had any sort of diplomatic relations since 2009.

“Both governments recognize the importance of the relationship between the State of Israel and the Jewish community in Venezuela, which constitutes an important historic bridge of friendship between the two countries,” Venezuela’s government said in a statement, which was also issued by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

It added that the two countries agreed to “continue their bilateral technical cooperation stemming from the emergency response and reconstruction efforts following the double earthquake” in June.

Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Israel under then-president Hugo Chávez in 2009, amid deteriorating relations between Chávez’s government and Israel and........

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