KABUL: Arab League member states have strongly condemned recent comments by Mike Hawkbi, the United States ambassador to Israel, describing them as “baseless and unacceptable.”
According to Anadolu Agency, the Arab countries issued a joint statement on Saturday night responding to Hawkbi’s remarks in which he asserted, during a podcast, that Israel has the right to exercise control over the entire Middle East, including the occupied West Bank.
The foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, and Oman, in separate statements, criticized Hawkbi’s remarks as “irresponsible, in violation of international law, the UN Charter, and diplomatic norms.”
Saudi Arabia specifically called on the U.S. State Department to clarify Washington’s official position and publicly repudiate the ambassador’s statements.
Hawkbi had argued that, according to Israel’s “sacred texts,” the state has the right to maintain authority from the Nile to the Euphrates.