Published On 5/7/2026
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Last update: 19:37 (Mecca time)
On Sunday, Israel announced the appointment of its first resident ambassador to Slovenia, after a government change in Ljubljana that brought conservatives to power at the expense of the former leftist government.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Ruth Cohen-Dar, who was until now a non-resident ambassador to Slovenia and Malta, will become the first Israeli ambassador permanently resident in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.
The ministry explained in a statement that “the decision to establish the embassy was taken after many years of declining relations between Israel and Slovenia, and following the formation of a new government in Slovenia headed by Janez Janša, a friend of Israel.”
Improvement after stress
Relations between the two sides witnessed a noticeable improvement with Janša assuming his position, after tension against the backdrop of the Israeli war of genocide on the besieged Gaza Strip, which the previous government belonging to the center-left movement headed by Robert Golub confirmed was “genocide.”
Since the new right-leaning Slovenian government took power, it has lifted the ban on arms exports to Israel, and canceled the decisions to ban the entry of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the extreme right-wing ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
The Janša government also canceled the import ban on products coming from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The new government also removed the Palestinian flag, which had been symbolically raised on the government building since Slovenia recognized the State of Palestine in 2024.
