Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar congratulated the new president-elect of Honduras, Nasry "Tito" Asfura, in a call on Wednesday, the minister said in a X/tweet post.
"I was glad to congratulate the President-elect of Honduras, Nasry Asfura, on his election as President of Honduras. I conveyed our warm wishes to the people of Honduras, wished him success in his role, and invited him to visit Israel," Sa'ar published.
"Honduras has a long history of friendship with the State of Israel and the Jewish people. We agreed to work to strengthen bilateral relations for the benefit of both countries," he added.
With this, Israel became one of the first countries to congratulate the new president-elect of Honduras, following an election marked by delays, technical failures, and fraud allegations.
Asfura won the election with a narrow advantage over the runner-up, Salvador Nasralla of the center-right Liberal Party, at 40.3% to 39.5%, Reuters reported.
The difference was so small that, according to Reuters, the electoral authority, known as the CNE, had to manually count approximately 15% of the tally. At the same time, the ruling party LIBRE, which came in third in the election, called for protests against what they denounced as an "electoral coup."
The Reuters report said the protests interrupted the counting, delaying the official results for weeks after protesters blocked officials from entering the building where the counting was being conducted.
Honduras' new Trump-supported president of Palestinian origin
Asfura, who is of Palestinian origin, received significant support from US President Donald Trump during his campaign.
"The United States congratulates President-Elect Asfura and looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X following the results.
In November, Trump stated that "democracy is on trial in the coming Elections in the beautiful country of Honduras on November 30th," and that the elections could determine if "Maduro and his Narcoterrorists take over another country as they have taken over Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela."
In a subsequent post, Trump also promised that the United States will work closely with him in order to ensure the success, with all of its potential, of Honduras!"
Runner-up Nasralla is also of Palestinian descent and participated for a fourth consecutive term in the country's presidential election.
Reuters contributed to this report.