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OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says ensuring the security of Israel is a core component of Canada’s Middle East strategy, including the fight against Islamic State militants.

Freeland is delivering that message at a major meeting of the World Jewish Congress in New York.

The minister calls the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant a “death cult” that will be defeated.

READ MORE: Trump decries anti-Semitism, terrorism on Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day

She says part of that strategy is shoring up Lebanon and Jordan – countries facing a massive influx of Syrian refugees displaced by fighting between various factions in that country’s long civil war.

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She also cited Canada’s participation in the anti-ISIL multinational naval mission known as Command Task Force 150 as part of Canada’s contribution to Israel’s security.

The speech is one of Freeland’s first major public pronouncements on Israel since she replaced Stephane Dion in the portfolio in January.