French President Francois Hollande. Photo: wiki commons.

On a visit to France, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won pledges from French President Francois Hollande to push harder for new sanctions against Iran.

“We must make sure that through pressure, sanctions and later through negotiations, Iran renounces its intention to have access to nuclear weapons. I am working in that spirit,” Hollande said, according to the Washington Post.

The meetings between the Israeli and French leaders, which will include the visit to a memorial for the March shooting of a rabbi and three children at the Otzar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, are the first since Holland was elected in May. It is Netanyahu’s “first opportunity to talk with President Hollande, and he hopes to build a good working relationship with the French leader,” a source close to Netanyahu told AFP.

Previously, Hollande has only spoken to Netanyahu by phone, though he has met in person twice with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris. Hollande did personally meet Israeli Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich in the past. “It’s no secret that the Jews of France are experiencing a difficult period since the Toulouse incident,” one source said, according to the European Jewish Press.