Netanyahu and Kurz (archive)
Netanyahu and Kurz (archive)Kobi Gideon/GPO

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday met with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the Munich Security Conference.

The two met for the first time since Israel decided to limit its contact with Austrian ministers who are members of the far-right Freedom Party.

The Freedom Party, which was partly founded by former Nazis, holds six posts, including the interior, defense and foreign ministries in Kurz’s coalition government, after it garnered the third-highest vote total in the October elections.

"I met Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at his request," Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting.

"He told me about all the steps they are taking against anti-Semitism and for the State of Israel. He told me that they intend to change the voting patterns of Austria at the UN and that he intends to support Israel's candidacy for the Security Council should we submit it,” added the prime minister.

Even as Israel’s Foreign Ministry limited its contact with the ministries headed by the Freedom Party to the professional staff, Netanyahu was expected to maintain direct contact with Kurz.

Kurz has pledged to make "combating anti-Semitism in all its forms" a top priority.

"We will determinedly fight anti-Semitism in all its forms – those already existent but also imported into our country as an essential duty of our government," he said in a speech in December.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)