Recognition of Palestinian state ‘disastrous’, warns US ambassador

The United States’ ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee claims plans by the UK to recognise a Palestinian state has had “disastrous consequences”.

Huckabee, a Republican Party baptist minister and close ally of Donald Trump, added: “I don’t know why people don’t understand that unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is a violation of the Oslo Accords that everybody thought would lead to a Palestinian state.”

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he claimed recognition by the UK, France and other countries could force Israel to take its own steps, including “declaring sovereignty over more parts of Judea and Samaria”.

“So whatever the thought was, no matter how noble it may have seemed, it has had disastrous consequences that have proven to do exactly opposite of what many of the European countries have thought were would be a great idea,” Huckabee claimed.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state later in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.

Australia, France, Japan and Canada have all made similar announcements in support of recognising a Palestinian state.

The Israeli government says that recognition “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism”, that there is “no [Palestinian] partner for peace”.

The State of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states.

But France, Canada, and the UK would be the first G7 states to do so.

Huckabee described the conflict between Israel and Hamas is “a spiritual conflict, a battle of the ages … It’s heaven versus hell, it’s good versus evil.”

As a result of  the October 7 massacre committed by Hamas, he stated: “You stand with Israel not for its government, but for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Law, the Light, the foundation of Western civilisation.”

“What Hamas did was a level of evil the likes of which, you just look throughout all history, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything like it,” he said.