Arab and Islamic countries jointly condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East.
Huckabee, a former Baptist minister and a fervent Israel supporter, was speaking on the podcast of Tucker Carlson.
In an episode released on Friday, Carlson pushed Huckabee on the meaning of a biblical verse sometimes interpreted as saying that Israel is entitled to the land between the Nile River in Egypt and the Euphrates in Syria and Iraq.
In response, Huckabee said: “It would be fine if they took it all.”
When pressed, however, he continued that Israel was “not asking to take all of that”, adding: “It was somewhat of a hyperbolic statement.”
The backlash widened sharply on Sunday as more than a dozen Arab and Islamic governments – alongside three major regional organisations – issued a joint statement denouncing the US diplomat’s comments as “dangerous and inflammatory”.
Four people were arraigned on Saturday in New Jersey for allegedly posing as immigration attorneys and officials to scam immigrants, the justice department said.
President Donald Trump kicked reporters out of a breakfast meeting Feb. 20 with governors so the officials could speak “candidly.”
President Donald Trump escalated his push to raise tariffs without the Supreme Court's backing on Feb. 21, announcing he would up the 10% worldwide tariff he announced after the nation's highest court ruled against him to 15%.
The Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) destroyed three Russian Tor-M1 air defense systems, worth a total of $75 million, in the early hours of Friday, Feb. 20, according to USF chief Robert “Madyar” Brovdi.
