US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has drawn widespread condemnation from Arab and Muslim states after suggesting Israel had the “biblical right” to expand its territory across the Middle East – from the Euphrates to the Nile.
“It would be fine if they took it all,” he told Tucker Carlson on Friday when asked if Israel had the right to claim “basically the entire Middle East as its own”, based on precedent laid out in the Bible.
Such territory would include modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.
In a joint statement early on Sunday, a number of states condemned and expressed “profound concern” regarding the remarks.
The statement was signed by the foreign ministries of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, the Islamic Cooperation, the Gulf Co-operation and the League of Arab States.
The statement said Mr Huckabee “directly contradicts” the vision put forward by US President Donald Trump for Gaza, as well as the plan to end the war, “which are based on containing escalation and creating a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement that ensures the Palestinian people have their own independent state”.
It further warned against Israel's “expansionist policies and unlawful measures” which will only “inflame violence and conflict in the region”.
In separate statements on Saturday, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry called for the US State Department to provide clarification on the comments. Jordan dismissed Mr Huckabee's remarks as “absurd and provocative”.
Mr Huckabee, an evangelical Christian Zionist, has faced repeated criticism since taking up his ambassadorship. Critics say he advocates for Israeli policies while minimising Palestinian rights. For instance, he calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria, a term the Israeli government prefers.
The remarks come at a sensitive moment in the region, as international concern grows over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and the viability of a two-state solution.
The UN human rights office on Thursday accused Israel of committing war crimes and said practices that displace Palestinians and alter the demographic composition of the West Bank “raise concerns over ethnic cleansing”.
The Israeli security cabinet this month approved measures that would allow Israelis to buy land in the West Bank, and gave the government more authority over the territory.
