US ambassador's Israel comments condemned by Arab and Muslim nations

37 minutes agoMaia DaviesReutersMike Huckabee, pictured in September, has long been a supporter of IsraelArab and Muslim governments have condemned remarks made by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel would be justified in taking over a vast stretch of the Middle East on Biblical grounds.In an interview with conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee was asked whether Israel had a right to an area which the host said was, according to the Bible, "essentially the entire Middle East".The ambassador said "it would be fine if it took it all". But he added Israel was not seeking to do so, rather it is "asking to at least take the land that they now occupy" and protect its people.In a joint statement, more than a dozen governments including Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates called the comments "dangerous and inflammatory", and a threat to efforts to end the war in Gaza.In the interview, released on Friday, Carlson pressed the ambassador on his interpretation of a Bible verse which the host claimed suggested Israel had a right to the land between the River Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.Huckabee said "it would be a big piece of land" but stressed that "I don't think that's what we're talking about here today".He later added: "They're not asking to go back to take all of that, but they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them."He also said his earlier remark that Israel could take it "all" had been somewhat "hyperbolic".Following the interview's release, the UAE's foreign ministry released the statement on behalf of various governments and other actors expressing "strong condemnation and profound concern" regarding the comments.The statement said Huckabee had "indicated that it would be acceptable for Israel to exercise control over territories belonging to Arab states, including the occupied West Bank".It said the remarks violated international law and directly contradicted US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, including efforts to create "a political horizon for a comprehensive settlement that ensures the Palestinian people have their own independent state".The statement continued: "The ministries reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands.""They reiterated their firm rejection of any attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip, their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and their categorical rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states."The statement said it was signed by the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and the State of Palestine, as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council.Huckabee has frequently expressed his support for Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, contradicting decades of US policy.Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.The settlements are illegal under international law - a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 2024.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time that the court had made a "decision of lies" and insisted that "the Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land".Successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow. However, expansion has risen sharply since Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.More than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's subsequent military offensive, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.