Background.js in my iOS never gets executed

I have converted my chrome extension to Safari and followed all the instructions: here is my manifest:

{
 "manifest_version": 2,
 "default_locale": "en",
 "name": "__MSG_extName__",
 "version": "1.0",
 "homepage_url": "https://mydomain.com/",
 "description": "__MSG_appDesc__",

 "icons": {
  "16": "images/16.png",
  "32": "images/32.png",
  "48": "images/48.png",
  "128": "images/128.png"
 },

 "background": {
  "scripts": [ "background.js"],
  "persistent": false
 },

 "permissions": ["storage", "tabs", "contextMenus", "nativeMessaging", "<all_urls>"],
  
 "browser_action" : {
	 "default_icon" : "images/_48.png",
	 "default_title" : "MyAppName v0.0.1" ,
	 "default_popup" : "popup.html"
 },
  
  
 "content_scripts": [
	{
		"matches": ["<all_urls>"],
		"js": ["js/content.js"],
	}
 ]
}

I've removed everything from background.js and left the below lines for troubleshooting:

var bkg = chrome.extension.getBackgroundPage();
bkg.console.log("test1");
console.log("test2");

But I see no output. The same works for Safari macOS. I'd like to know if background.js would ever work in iOS? if yes, what do I need to do to get it working?