Iran slams US ambassador’s claim of Israel’s right to all Middle East

By Tolga Akbaba and Aladdin Mustafaoglu

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran condemned Sunday remarks by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee in which he openly accepted Israel’s control over the entire Middle East, including the occupied West Bank.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on the US social media company X that Huckabee’s statements are “a bold testament to American active complicity in Israeli regime's expansionist wars of aggression as well as its colonial genocide of Palestinians.”

Iran decries “‘such extremist ideological rhetoric’ that would only further embolden the occupying regime to persist in its atrocity crimes and illegal measures against Palestinians as well as its constant aggression against the nations of the region,” he added.

Huckabee argued on Friday that Israel has a biblical right to the land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers, saying on a podcast released Friday: “It would be fine if they (Israel) took it all.”

Huckabee made the remarks in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, during which he defended Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and voiced support for the idea of “divine providence” giving control of the region to Israel.

After Huckabee claimed Israel had a divine right to vast portions of the Middle East, Carlson asked him: “What land are you talking about?” Interpretations of the biblical phrase “river of Egypt” vary, with some scholars identifying it as a riverbed in the Sinai Peninsula and others as the Nile.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee replied, referring to Israel’s alleged right to the territory stretching from the Nile River to the Euphrates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told news channel i24 last August that he feels “very attached” to the vision of a Greater Israel. He said he considers himself “on a historic and spiritual mission,” including “generations of Jews that dreamt of coming here and generations of Jews who will come after us.”

Greater Israel is a term used in Israeli politics to refer to the expansion of Israel’s territory to include the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria’s Golan Heights, with some interpretations also including Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and parts of Jordan.

*Writing by Rania Abushamala in Istanbul.