Netanyahu noted his country’s contribution to Europe’s security, stressing that Israel has “thwarted dozens of terrorist attacks on the Continent’s soil.”
By: World Israel News Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday met with the Minister-President of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.
During discussions aimed at deepening cooperation between Israel and North Rhine-Westphalia, Netanyahu briefed Laschet on “regional threats and Iranian aggression,” the PMO’s office stated
Netanyahu noted his country’s contribution to Europe’s security, in particular the fact that Israel has “thwarted dozens of terrorist attacks on the Continent’s soil,” according to the statement.
Most recently, Israel was a key player in preventing an Iranian terror attack in Paris. In July, an international terror cell was arrested based on information supplied by Israel’s elite Mossad spy agency, preventing major casualties at an anti-regime Iranian rally.
At a July 4 reception in honor of American Independence Day, Netanyahu referred to the attack while expressing amazement at continuing European efforts to keep up a relationship with Iran.
“This Iranian terror plot was planned on European soil in the same week that the European leaders are supposed to meet the president of Iran about circumventing the sanctions on Iran. Stop funding the very regime that is sponsoring terrorism against you and against so many others. Stop appeasing Iran,” he urged.
Laschet tweeted after the meeting that he had a “90-min[ute] exchange on anti-Semitism, geostrategic issues and closer economic cooperation” with Netanyahu. “Unusually detailed,” he underscored.
Laschet is in Israel to open the first representative office of its kind by North Rhine-Westphalia. In Jerusalem, he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and laid a wreath at the site.
Israel has good relations with the state in a range of areas, including youth exchanges and Holocaust education. The scope of trade with the state is approximately 1 billion Euros per annum.