report acknowledges Iran is developing "technical capabilities that could be applied to the production of nuclear weapons" and has ballistic missiles "to target Israel."

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Friday announced Canada had closed its embassy in Iran and instructed Iranian diplomats in Ottawa to leave the country within five days.

In response, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper hostile and racist, and accused it of doing the bidding of Israel and Britain, according to Iran's Mehr news agency.

Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, has cancelled a planned visit to Canada to protest the embassy closure, according to the Fars news agency.

'Forthright stand'

Netanyahu said Israel did not know Canada was about to break off ties with Iran, nor did the Jewish state shareany special intelligence with Ottawa. He said he hopes other countries will follow Canada's example.

"I think everyone in Israel appreciates its forthright stand against a regime that brutalizes its own people, that colludes in the murder of tens of thousands in Syria, that denies the Holocaust and calls for the eradication of the state of Israel while pursuing an illicit program for developing nuclear weapons.

"I think that it's particularly important that at this time Canada took a real position and said this can't go on," Netanyahu said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told CBC his country appreciates Canada's "forthright stand" against the Iranian government. (Uriel Sinai/Associated Press/Getty)

On Sunday, Harper said there was a long list of reasons for suspending diplomatic ties with Iran. He said one of the