Foreign ministers of 13 states reject suggestion by US envoy about Israel controlling territory from Nile to Euphrates
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan and 13 other Muslim-majority countries have strongly condemned remarks by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggesting he would not oppose Israel taking control of vast swathes of the Middle East, calling the comments a flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to regional stability.
According to a statement shared by the Foreign Office on Sunday, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, along with the secretariats of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, League of Arab States and Gulf Cooperation Council, expressed “profound concern” and categorical rejection of the envoy’s remarks.
Speaking in an interview with commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee argued that Israel has a biblical right to land stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates River and said “it would be fine if they took it all,” after a reference to territory between Iraq’s Euphrates and Egypt’s Nile.
The foreign ministers said such statements constitute “a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations” and pose a grave threat to regional peace and security.
The joint statement stressed that the remarks directly contradict the vision put forward by US President Donald Trump and the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, which they said is aimed at containing escalation and creating a political pathway towards a settlement that guarantees Palestinians an independent state.
They underscored that Israel holds “no sovereignty whatsoever over the occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands” and firmly rejected any attempt to annex the West Bank or separate it from Gaza.
Separately, Saudi Arabia condemned what it described as “reckless remarks” that violate diplomatic norms and threaten international peace, while Kuwait said the comments undermine sovereignty and contradict Washington’s stated vision.
Oman termed the remarks illegitimate and harmful to regional stability, Jordan called them “absurd and provocative,” Egypt described them as a “flagrant departure” from international law, and Iraq said they amount to a serious overreach infringing on state sovereignty. The OIC labelled the remarks “dangerous and irresponsible,” warning they were based on a false and rejected narrative.
