The US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has said it would be “fine” if Israel took control of a vast swathe of the Middle East, drawing a swift rebuke from regional and other majority-Muslim states.

Suggesting even nominal support for Israeli sovereignty over much of the Middle East is an unprecedented departure from American foreign policy. It also goes well beyond what much of Israel’s far-right is willing to call for publicly.

Nearly every Middle Eastern country aside from Israel condemned Huckabee’s comments in a joint statement on Sunday.

In an interview with US conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, the ambassador was asked about his understanding of a biblical verse suggesting that land including parts of Egypt, Syria and Iraq had been divinely promised to the Jewish people.