The Times of Israel has reported former president Mohamed Nasheed’s success in the first round of the presidential election, and said that he is a Maldivian leader who “made efforts to open relations with Israel”.

The Times of Israel, according to the site’s nameplate, is a news website which covers Israel, the region, and the Jewish people worldwide.

“Deposed president Mohamed Nasheed, who maintained ‘relations of appreciation’ with Jerusalem, will be tested in September 28 ballot,” reads the sub-heading of the article on the Maldives’ presidential election.

The article says, “Nasheed is considered pro-Israel, a controversial position in the Muslim-majority island nation, and his government maintained “relations of appreciation and friendship with Israel,” the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem stated last year.

“In May 2012, the Maldives’s then-foreign minister, Ahmed Naseem, became the first top official to visit the Jewish state. During his four-day stay he met with President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, laid a wreath at Yad Vashem and visited other sites throughout the country.”