Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee waded into Middle Eastern politics by declaring the West Bank to be part of Israel.
Huckabee made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a West Bank settlement.
He told reporters “if you’re going to visit Israel you should visit all of Israel, and that would include Judea and Samaria”, the biblical name for the West Bank.
His comments are at odds with US policy.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war. Palestinians demand the area along with Gaza and East Jerusalem for a future state.
The fate of West Bank settlements is one of the core issues at the heart of the conflict. Palestinians blamed settlement expansions for the breakdown in 2014 of US-mediated peace talks with Israel – a position supported in part by Washington, but rejected by the Israelis.
Many evangelical Christians in the US view Israel as the modern iteration of the Old Testament Israelites designated as God’s chosen people. Huckabee, an ordained southern Baptist minister, noted on Sunday that he has travelled to Israel “dozens and dozens of times” since his first trip in 1973.
Huckabee said he is visiting Israel to meet with officials to discuss the Obama administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran.
Last month, Huckabee said President Obama was “marching the Israelis to the door of the oven” with the recent Iran nuclear deal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
