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Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee<\/a>, suggesting it would \u201cbe fine\u201d for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East.<\/p>\n Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. In an interview with the conservative US commentator Tucker Carlson<\/a> published on Friday, the ambassador pointed to verses in the Bible that some Jews and evangelical Christians interpret as signifying the divine right of Jews to claim the land from the Nile to the Euphrates.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be fine if they took it all. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about here today,\u201d Huckabee said<\/a>, suggesting that it was Israeli restraint that prevented the Jewish state from exercising its biblical claim.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about this land that the state of Israel now lives in and wants to have peace in,\u201d the ambassador said<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re not trying to take over Jordan, they\u2019re not trying to take over Syria, they\u2019re not trying to take over Iraq or anywhere else. They want to protect their people.\u201d<\/p>\n Huckabee later admitted his remark had been \u201csomewhat of a hyperbolic statement\u201d. But the suggestion that Jews had a divine right to a large part of the Middle East drew a furious response from Muslim governments around the world.<\/p>\n A joint statement signed by a list of countries including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, said the ambassador\u2019s comments were \u201cdangerous and inflammatory remarks, which constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and pose a grave threat to the security and stability of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n