United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has triggered an avalanche of criticism from Arab and Muslim countries after suggesting Israel has a right to expand its territory across a large swath of the Middle East. Huckabee delivered the remarks during a sit-down interview with US commentator Tucker Carlson, broadcast on Friday, as he was pressed about the geographical borders of Israel.
We're disappointed as a United States in our allies that we are great friends with, Huckabee said, because, first of all, it's a violation of the Oslo accords. That's problematic. The Oslo Accords were peace agreements signed in 1993 by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in which both factions agreed to recognize one another. Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization and its political governing body, the Palestinian Authority, have lost power over the years to rival militant extremists, Hamas.