With: The Canadian Press

Canada should play a larger role in Middle East negotiations, the head of the World Jewish Congress has said. Ronald S. Lauder met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister John Baird in Ottawa on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, as well as anti-Semitism.

Following a new coalition government in Israel, a revitalized course could be set for peace with the Palestinians, Lauder said in an interview with the news agency ‘Canadian Press’. "I believe that in the coming months, Canada can play a role and I think will be invited to play a role," he declared.

Both the Israeli prime minister and president visited Canada this spring to express support for the strong pro-Israel policies of the Harper government. "Canada's long-standing position on a negotiated, two-state solution has not changed," a spokesman for Baird said, adding: “Our government always stands ready to work in a constructive way to help solve international disputes."

In a recent interview, Baird (pictured right, with Ronald Lauder) discussed his government's Middle East policy. "Canada is not going to be an honest broker between an international terrorist organization and a liberal democracy, when the great struggle of our generation is the struggle between liberal democracies and international terrorist organizations," he said.

Lauder, also a former US ambassador, said that as he travels the world, he hears only good things about Canadian foreign policy. "Today it is a very dangerous world out there, there are very few true leaders out there," Lauder told the ‘Canadian Press’, adding that PM Harper had been “a true leader. He spoke his mind."