Despite explicitly saying he “would be fine” if Israel took most of the Middle East in accordance with his interpretation of the Bible, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee has suggested the remark was selectively edited.
The comment by the United States envoy, made during an interview with podcaster Tucker Carlson, sparked outrage and condemnation across the Arab world, including from Saudi Arabia.
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“The version Tucker put on X edited out my full response. Truth matters to many of us. Apparently not to Tucker. Sad,” Huckabee wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
The evangelical pastor also shared a post saying the Arab League, which condemned his comment, “needs a new translator”.
Speaking with Carlson on Friday, Huckabee was pressed about the geographical borders of Israel, which he argued are rooted in Old Testament scripture.
Huckabee told Carlson that the biblical verse that promised land to the descendants of Abraham refers to an area between the Euphrates River in Iraq and the Nile River in Egypt.
Such a stretch of territory would encompass modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia.
“It would be fine if they took it all,” said Huckabee, who was appointed by President Donald Trump last year.
On Sunday, the ambassador, an avowed Christian Zionist and staunch defender of Israel, tried to deny making the statement, claiming Carlson, who aired the full interview on his website, had taken his words out of context.
He shared a Jewish Insider article with the headline “Saudi Arabia leads regional push against Huckabee based on partial remarks.”
“As Paul Harvey would say ‘Now the REST OF THE STORY,’” Huckabee wrote, referring to the late American radio broadcaster and his catchphrase.
The US Department of State has not addressed Huckabee’s remarks publicly, and it has not responded to repeated requests for comment by Al Jazeera.
The comments sparked a backlash across the region, including from some close US allies.
Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at the US-based rights group DAWN, stressed that Huckabee’s statement was not a gaffe and called for the ambassador to be sacked.
“An ambassador who publicly endorses Israeli territorial expansion across the entire Middle East cannot serve as a representative of the United States,” Jarrar told Al Jazeera.
“He should be removed immediately, and the Trump administration’s failure to act will be read by the world as an endorsement of his views.”
He stressed that Huckabee’s “extremist views” do not align with established US policy.
“The longer he remains in this post, the greater the damage to US credibility and its ability to play any constructive role in the region,” Jarrar said.
Huckabee appeared to walk back his assertion during the interview, saying it had been “somewhat of a hyperbolic statement”.
“They don’t want to take it over. They’re not asking to take it over,” the ambassador replied.
Still, he left the door open for Israeli expansionism. “If they end up getting attacked by all these places and they win that war and they take that land, OK, that’s a whole other discussion,” he said.
Israeli law does not clearly demarcate the country’s borders. Since its inception in 1948, Israel has been expanding its territories through war in violation of international law.
