Jordan blasts US envoy Mike Huckabee's Israel can ‘take all Middle East' remark

Jordan has condemned remarks by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggesting it would be acceptable for Israel to take control of the entire Middle East, from the Nile to the Euphrates, in the first formal Arab response to the controversy.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry described Huckabee’s comments as "absurd and provocative, and represent a violation of diplomatic norms, an infringement on the sovereignty of the region’s states, and a clear breach of international law and the United Nations Charter".

The ministry focused on the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, saying that the remarks "contradict US President Donald Trump’s declared position rejecting the annexation of the occupied West Bank".

It further stressed that "the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip are occupied Palestinian territories under international law".

Huckabee made the comments during a two-hour interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson.

In the interview, Huckabee invoked the Book of Genesis, referring to the passage in which God promises Abraham land "from the River of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates".

Carlson noted that, in modern geographic terms, such a description would encompass "basically the entire Middle East", including the whole of Jordan and Lebanon, most of Syria, and large parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

When pressed on whether Israel had the right to that territory, Huckabee responded: "It would be fine if they took it all."

He also framed his position in religious terms, saying: "Israel is a land that God gave, through Abraham, to a people that he chose. It was a people, a place and a purpose."

Jordan, which shares a long border with Israel and has a peace treaty with it since 1994, has repeatedly warned against annexation of the occupied West Bank, viewing it as a direct threat to regional stability and its own national security.