Netanyahu is pleased with Freeland about Iran, while she offers "irresistible" support

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pleased that Canada is not rushing to restore diplomatic relations with Iran. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland affirmed Canada's unwavering support for the Jewish state.

Freeland said Thursday that her two-hour meeting with Netanyahu a day earlier had addressed a wide range of pressing global issues, including Canada's tense relations with Iran, a country Israel views as a existential threat.

In the 2015 federal election, the Liberal government was committed to restoring diplomatic relations with Iran, but Freeland made it clear that this would not happen if the regime did not allow Maryam Mombeini , a dual Iran-Canadian citizenship, to leave the country.

The Iranian government denied Mombeini permission to travel after the death of her husband, an environmentalist and university professor, in a Tehran prison, while he was accused of espionage .

"This is what we need to resolve with Iran before moving on to any other issue," Freeland said during a conference call with reporters Thursday.

Netanyahu highlighted the debate over Iran as he welcomed the Canadian diplomat on his first trip to the Middle East, which included stops in Jordan and the West Bank.

"We appreciate your support in various international forums," Netanyahu said in remarks published by his office.

"In fact, you said you would not establish international relations with Iran, which should be self-evident for a country that openly calls for the destruction of the one and only Jewish state, but you have acted accordingly and we appreciate the fact that. "

Earlier Thursday, Freeland had said in an important speech that the rejection of Jewish refugees before the Holocaust by Canada was shameful, but that he has since become Israel's unwavering ally. against anti-Semitism, especially after the killings at the Pittsburgh Synagogue last Saturday.

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Freeland spoke of Canada's modern history with the Jewish people during his speech to the Israel Foreign Relations Council.

His remarks were addressed to Israeli experts who wonder whether Canada's support for Israel has weakened under the current Liberal government, following the blatant friendship expressed by Stephen Harper's previous Conservative government. .

She reminded her Israeli audience that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will apologize next Wednesday for Canada's 1939 decision to reject an asylum claim from more than 900 Jews aboard the MS Steamship. Louis.

More than 250 of them would later be murdered in Nazi Germany.

Freeland also reminded his audience that Canada was one of the first countries to recognize and support the emergence of Israel as a nation after World War II.

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But she said it was a hard-won lesson after the Canadian government rejected the MS St. Louis. Freeland noted that only 5,000 Jewish refugees entered Canada between 1933 and 1945.

"It was a period of ignorance for which we are always ashamed," she said.

"It is unacceptable that so many years after the Holocaust, we still saw incidents of hatred against religious groups, such as the appalling anti-Semitic attack of those who prayed in the Tree of Life synagogue to Pittsburgh on Shabbat only a few days ago. "

The most deadly attack ever perpetrated against Jews in the United States was the fatal shooting Saturday against 11 Jewish personalities at the Pittsburgh Synagogue.

Freeland said the attack was not entirely an American phenomenon.

"I am sad to say that the Jewish people is the religious group in Canada most likely to be the target of hate crimes – that it is vandalism, graffiti, hate propaganda or racist comments online. "

She said a Jewish community center in her riding in Toronto had faced a bomb threat last year.

"Too often, the violence seems insurmountable, especially after the last weekend," she said.

"I challenge this view: Let's all fight for peace and inclusion in the face of hatred, discrimination and terrorism."

Freeland said Canada supports many initiatives with the United States, the European Union and other countries to learn lessons from the Holocaust, improve education on genocide and fight the "scourge" of anti-Semitism all over the world.

"Canada's commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering and beyond reproach."

Israel occupies a "dangerous neighborhood" that now includes an increased threat from Iran that has launched attacks with the help of armed drones, she said.

Freeland also attributed to the cooperation between Israel and its Arab ally and neighbor, Jordan, as well as Britain, the United States and Germany, to have sanctioned 400 White Helmets fleeing Syria.

According to Freeland, the mission "is a concrete example of not cursing the darkness and lighting a candle" in the face of the long civil war in Syria.

"We are forever grateful to Israel for its essential and courageous action."

Freeland also visited a Palestinian refugee camp on Thursday and met with Riyadh al-Maliki, his counterpart in the Palestinian Authority.