ISRAEL: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits Hula Valley bird sanctuary and Tel Aviv University where he is awarded an honorary doctorate

Record ID: 397989

  • Title: ISRAEL: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visits Hula Valley bird sanctuary and Tel Aviv University where he is awarded an honorary doctorate
  • Date: 22nd January 2014
  • Summary: HULA LAKE, ISRAEL (JANUARY 22, 2014) (REUTERS) CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER AT HULA LAKE HARPER AND HIS WIFE LOOKING AT SITE CRANES VARIOUS OF CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER AT HULA LAKE TOUR BUS THAT CARRIES HARPER MOVING AWAY TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JANUARY 22, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER SHAKING HANDS WITH UNIVERSITY DOCTORS PEOPLE CL
  • Embargoed: 6th February 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACSH8S4UENF3VGTE5T4DR8VUJG
  • Story Text: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited on Wednesday (January 22) Hula Lake in Northern Israel and Tel Aviv University.
    In Hula Lake, he had a tour around the lake and saw the various birds on the site.
    Harper and a large delegation of ministers and officials arrived in the Middle East on Sunday (January 19) for a six-day visit aimed to include Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
    After the Hula Lake, he visited the Tel Aviv University where he is awarded an honorary doctorate.
    Harper hopes there are some signs that the Iran nuclear deal "will be complied with and will lead to something else".
    "We are interested in what real actions, enforceable and variable actions that will actually come out of this agreement. And that's what we will be looking for all along way to make sure that everything that is said is actually done, implemented, and verified. We will not be satisfied until we see that, and we will not lift our sanctions until we are convinced that this is happening. And if it doesn't happen we will be the loudest in the international community and demanding full sanctions be reinstate," Harper said.
    Iran has halted its most sensitive nuclear activity under a preliminary deal with world powers that was struck in November last year, winning some relief from economic sanctions on Monday (January 20) in a ground-breaking exchange that could ease a threat of war.
    The interim accord was the culmination of years of on-off diplomacy between Iran and six powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. It marks the first time in a decade that Tehran has limited nuclear operations that it says are aimed mainly at generating electricity and the first time the West has eased its economic pressure on Iran.
    In the last two days Harper met with Palestinian and Israeli leaders and spoke in the Israeli parliament where he criticised comparisons between the Jewish state and apartheid South Africa.
    Canada has long backed Israel on the diplomatic stage, voting in 2012 against a Palestinian U.N. bid to win statehood and in the same year cutting ties with Iran.
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