Palestinian state should be established in 'a Muslim country', US ambassador Mike Huckabee says
THE US AMBASSADOR to Israel has said that any Palestinian state should be established in 'a Muslim country' as he rejected the notion of US support for a two-state solution.
Mike Huckabee, a former Fox News host and ex-governor of Arkansas who ran against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, was speaking ahead of a UN conference in New York next week.
The conference will be co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia and will focus on a framework for establishing Palestinian statehood as part of a two-state solution.
Huckabee appeared to confirm a US foreign policy reversal with regard to support for a two-state solution
in an interview with Bloomberg News
.
In response to a question about whether a two-state solution remained a goal of the White House, Huckabee replied: 'I don't think so.'
He went on to say that if Palestine was to set up its own state, it could do so in 'a Muslim country' outside of Israel's modern borders, despite Palestine having previously existed on the land of modern Israel before the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948.
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In a separate interview with the BBC
, Huckabee said: 'Muslim countries have 644 times the amount of land that are controlled by Israel. So maybe, if there is such a desire for the Palestinian state, there would be someone who would say, we'd like to host it.'
The two-state solution, traditionally backed by most UN member states including the US, proposes resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by establishing two states for two peoples – Israel for the Jewish people and Palestine for the Palestinians.
'Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there's no room for it,' Huckabee said, claiming these probably won't happen 'in our lifetime'.
French President Emmanuel Macron had hinted at recognising Palestine while at next week's conference, an action that Huckabee reacted angrily to.
He said that if Macron supported such an outcome, he could 'carve out a piece of the French Riviera' and create a state for Palestine there.
The US has been steadfast in its opposition to the conference, threatening countries who take part in any 'anti-Israel actions' via a formal statement issued on Tuesday.
'The United States opposes any steps that would unilaterally recognise a conjectural Palestinian state, which adds significant legal and political obstacles to the eventual resolution of the conflict and could coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies,' it said.
It added: 'Unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state would effectively render Oct. 7 Palestinian Independence Day.'
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