Arab and Muslim governments have condemned remarks made by the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel would be justified in taking over a vast stretch of the Middle East on Biblical grounds.
In an interview with conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson, Huckabee was asked whether Israel had a right to an area which the host said was, according to the Bible, "essentially the entire Middle East".
The ambassador said "it would be fine if it took it all". But he added Israel was not seeking to do so, rather it is "asking to at least take the land that they now occupy" and protect its people.
In a joint statement, more than a dozen governments including Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates called the comments "dangerous and inflammatory", and a threat to efforts to end the war in Gaza.
In the interview, released on Friday, Carlson pressed the ambassador on his interpretation of a Bible verse which the host claimed suggested Israel had a right to the land between the River Nile in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.
