Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that his speech at the UN is now "reverberating" around the world, Netanyahu said Friday. Following their meeting, US President Barack Obama expressed solidarity on the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but stopped short of endorsing Netanyahu's red line approach.
Harper said that Canada wanted to see a peaceful resolution to the Iranian crisis, "and we work closely with our allies to try and alert the world to the danger this presents and the necessity of dealing with it."
"In practice, that means setting red lines on their enrichment process. It's their only discernible and vulnerable part of their nuclear program," Netanyahu said before a breakfast meeting in New York with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Netanyahu reiterated what he said in his speech, that he believes Iran will "back off" if red lines are set.
During their meeting, Netanyahu praised Harper again for Canada's decision recently to sever ties with Iran. "I think that what you did, severing ties with Iran, was not only an act of statesmanship, but an act of moral clarity," he said.
Meanwhile on Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the UN General Assembly that Iran needed to provide a serious response to international concerns and "stop playing for time."
"We want a political and diplomatic solution. Time is short," he said. "The situation is serious."
US President Obama, who opted not to meet Netanyahu on his US visit, spoke by phone to the Israeli leader on Friday. "The two leaders underscored that they are in full agreement on the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the White House said in a statement. But it stopped short of saying Obama had given any ground on his resistance to issuing an ultimatum to Tehran as Netanyahu has demanded.
Mitt Romney, Obama's Republican presidential rival, was expected to speak by phone to Netanyahu later on Friday while the Israeli leader was in the New York.
On Thursday, the White House said that Obama and Netanyahu share the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and will maintain close cooperation on the issue.