Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday joined 13 other countries in condemning remarks by the United States Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who appeared to endorse a Biblical notion suggesting Israel’s right to control mainland Arab regions.
Huckabee made the comments during an interview on Friday with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. During the discussion, Carlson referred to a Biblical verse describing Israel’s region as extending from the Euphrates River in Iraq to the Nile in Egypt. Responding to the suggestion, Huckabee, known as a staunch pro-Israel conservative, said, “It would be fine if they (Israel) took it all.”
In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said that the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, along with the secretariats of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the League of Arab States, and the Gulf Cooperation Council, expressed “strong condemnation and profound concern” over the ambassador’s statement.
The joint statement affirmed the countries’ “categorical rejection of such dangerous and inflammatory remarks,” describing them as a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and as posing a grave threat to regional security and stability.
It further stated that the remarks contradict the vision put forward by US President Donald Trump, as well as the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict, both of which aim to contain escalation and create a political pathway for a comprehensive settlement that ensures an independent state for the Palestinian people.
The ministers said the plan is grounded in promoting tolerance and peaceful coexistence, and that statements seeking to legitimise control over the lands of others undermine these objectives, fuel tensions, and constitute incitement rather than advancing peace.
They reaffirmed that “Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands,” reiterating their firm rejection of attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip. They also strongly opposed the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and categorically rejected any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states.
Warning that the continuation of Israel’s expansionist policies and unlawful measures would inflame violence and conflict in the region, the ministers underscored their steadfast commitment to the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to the establishment of an independent state along the lines of June 4, 1967, along with an end to the occupation of all Arab lands.
With PTI inputs