4 days ago
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee slams Australia's Palestine recognition, claims ‘disgust' felt by Trump administration
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has slammed Australia's call on Palestinian statehood as a 'gift' to Hamas and has revealed the 'disgust' felt by the Trump administration over the move.
The government has come under heavy scrutiny following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's announcement on Monday that Australia would recognise a Palestinian state at the United States General Assembly in September.
The move followed leaders of other Western countries including France, United Kingdom and Canada in signalling their intentions to formally recognise Palestine.
Speaking from Jerusalem on Thursday, Mr Huckabee claimed the US was 'disappointed' with countries including Australia on their decision to 'unilaterally recognise a second state'.
'I think the timing has been very hurtful to any prospects of negotiating some settlement in Gaza with Hamas. They basically walked away. This is a gift to them, and it's unfortunate,' Mr Huckabee told ABC's 7.30 programme.
'And it also is a violation of the agreement that was done in Oslo that any type of recognition of a Palestinian state would involve the Israelis. This clearly does not and I would say it's unfortunate, but its also very disappointing to the United States.'
Pressed as to whether he had discussed the matter US President Donald Trump, the ambassador stated 'absolutely', adding that discussions had also involved US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
'There's an enormous level of disappointment and some disgust,' Mr Huckabee said.
Sharing sentiments from his talks with Trump on the issue, Mr Huckabee labelled Australia's call on Palestinian statehood 'frustrating'.
'Frustrating that there was no communication with the United States,' he said.
'As Israel's closest partner, we would have expected that there would have been some heads up. There wasn't.'
The remarks come amid mounting criticism of the Australia's move to recognise a Palestinian state by the US, with Mr Rubio earlier this week deeming the action "largely meaningless".
"The truth of the matter is that the future of that region is not going to be decided by some UN resolution. It's not going to be decided by some press release by a prime minister or a president from some country. It's going to be decided on the ground,' the US Secretary of State said.
Mr Albanese's announcement on Monday came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Australia's imminent recognition of Palestine 'shameful'.
'Well first of all, those who say Israel has a right to defend itself are also saying 'but don't exercise that right. When we do what any country would do faced with this genocidal terrorist organisation that has performed the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, I think we're actually applying force judiciously, and they know it,' Mr Netanyahu told reporters.
'They know what they would do if right next to Melbourne, or right next to Sydney, you had this horrific attack. I think you would do at least what we're doing. Probably, maybe not as efficiently and as precisely as we're doing it.'
