Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez will officially open a “diplomatic office” in Jerusalem on Friday, in a move the president has said is "the recognition that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel".

The president went on to say that, although this had been debated globally and he was prepared for criticism of his position but said if another country failed to recognise Tegucigalpa as Honduras' capital  "it is [like] not recognising our sovereignty.”

But the country’s foreign ministry said Israel's proposal that Honduras move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was being “analysed and evaluated in the international and national context.”

On Tuesday, Sarah Netanyahu, wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Miri Regev, Israel’s minister of culture and sport, that she had had asked the Guatemalan president, Jimmy Morales, to “work with Honduras to move their embassy to Jerusalem," describing the opening of the diplomatic office as “a step on the way to moving their embassy".

Guatemala moved its own embassy to Jerusalem last year, after the United States did so. Paraguay also moved its embassy, only to transfer it back to Tel Aviv when a new government assumed power a few months’ later.

Israel considers Jerusalem as a whole to be its capital, while many countries, although willing to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, see East Jerusalem as the site of a potential Palestinian capital in the event of a final peace deal in the region.

Last November, Australia recognised West Jerusalem as Israel's capital while saying that it recognised Palestinian aspirations to be a country with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, also said Australia would not move its embassy from Tel Aviv until a peace settlement was reached between Israel and the Palestinians.