Trump's dispute with Denmark over Greenland 'far from over', warns intelligence expert.

Extract from ABC News

By Europe correspondent Bridget Rollason in Denmark

• Foreign Correspondent

• Topic:War

1 hours ago

Donald Trump walks past Danish PM Mette Frederiksen at a NATO leaders summit at The Hague last year. (Reuters: Christian Hartmann)

Link copied

Denmark is used to the cold, but this winter has been different.

The capital Copenhagen is thawing from its most frigid January in 16 years, but the geopolitical climate is turning frostier.

US President Donald Trump's threats to seize Greenland have left Danes feeling the chill from a once-staunch NATO ally.

"This sense of betrayal is really out in the open now," says former chief analyst of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, Jacob Kaarsbo.

"There's a sense of a stab in the back."

The US president has since walked back talk of military action to take Greenland, but Jacob warns the issue is "far from over".

Danish intelligence analyst Jacob Kaarsbo says the Greenland feud is "far from over". (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)

"The trouble is Donald Trump is not going to get what he wants" from the current diplomatic process, he tells Foreign Correspondent.

Last month, Trump claimed he had struck a "framework" deal with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who later clarified the talks were about security, not sovereignty.

Denmark is still in discussions with Trump administration officials but has repeatedly said US ownership of Greenland is not on the table.

"[Trump] wants control over Greenland and he's not going to get it," Mr Kaarsbo said.

"We'll just have to see what he does then, because he'll have the next move. Will that be to threaten militarily again? We don't know. So we have to be prepared."

Mr Kaarsbo fears the country is facing the biggest threat to its sovereignty since the Second World War.

Greenland is a Danish autonomous territory in the Arctic with strategic importance and mineral wealth. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)

Denmark now finds itself exposed on two fronts — from an old foe, Russia, and an old ally in the United States.

"America is a formal ally because NATO still exists, but that's on paper. In reality it's not an ally. It's not someone we can depend on,"

Mr Kaarsbo said.

"[Denmark is] in a precarious position and we are under pressure both from the east and the west, and we have to handle it."

Denmark's dangerous neighbourhood

Even before the US started threatening Denmark's most westerly territory in January, Danes were on edge.

Countries across the Baltic Sea region have been on high alert over a growing threat in the east, Russia.

NATO has long suspected Russia's ambitions go beyond Ukraine, with Mr Rutte warning it could attack a NATO country within five years.

"We are Russia's next target and we are already in harm's way," Mr Rutte said in December. 

"We must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured."

A Swedish flagged NATO warship patrols the Baltic Sea. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)

Those fears have been stoked by a Russian campaign to covertly menace its neighbours across the region.

Russia is accused of launching "hybrid" or "grey zone" warfare, where a hostile state carries out indirect attacks designed to intimidate, sow panic and disrupt daily life.

Denmark has been a target, suffering a spate of drone incursions and cyber attacks.

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8pm on ABC TV as the program follows Denmark's response to the NATO security crisis.

In September, drones were detected in the skies around six airports, including Copenhagen's main airport, forcing three to shut down.

"This is the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at the time.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin has been coy about claiming responsibility for the hybrid attacks, Ms Frederiksen has little doubt who is behind them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been accused of waging hybrid war against NATO countries. (Reuters: Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev)

"It must be clear now to everyone — Russia will not stop until they are forced to do so," she told a gathering of European leaders last October.

There is a view in Denmark that Russia's shadowy campaign is a form of payback for the country's leading role in supporting and financing Ukraine.

There are also fears these attacks could be merely a prelude to more open hostility, even invasion.

The other island worrying Denmark

That scenario would likely play out on Bornholm, an island in the heart of the Baltic Sea on Denmark's most easterly flank.

Bornholm is one of the closest pieces of Danish territory to Russia.

Surrounded by rocky coastlines and beautiful beaches, locals call the popular tourist destination "sunshine island."

The island of Bornholm is one of Denmark's closest territories to Russia. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)

But it has a darker history.

At the end of World War II, Bornholm was under Russian occupation for nearly a year before being handed back to Denmark. 

Now some of its residents, including the curator of the local museum Jakob Seerup, fear history could be about to repeat itself.

As things stand, Mr Seerup said it would be "all too easy" for Russia to occupy Bornholm again.

"Bornholm could be seized in a night by a contingent of Russian soldiers. That sounds like some wild Tom Clancy novel, but it is actually within the realm of possibilities," he said.

Local historian Jakob Seerup fears Bornholm is vulnerable to Russian invasion. (Foreign Correspondent: Greg Nelson)

The island also sits just 350 kilometres from Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, and one of the most militarised places in Europe.

It is home to Russian warships and long-range missiles.

Mr Seerup believes those missiles could easily reach Bornholm.

"We know they have deployed fighter bombers that can launch Iskander missiles, like nuclear-capable missiles," he said.

Denmark is so worried Russia could attack Bornholm that it is stationing a permanent battalion of troops on the island for the first time in decades.

It is part of a wider military build-up now taking place across the country.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has declared Denmark must "re-arm massively" as it muscles up to Russia.

There is a sense of urgency in the process.

Denmark has expanded its mandatory conscription program to include women for the first time and nearly tripled the length of its mandatory military service from four to 11 months.

"I think everyone would like to have no war, but that might not be the reality," the head of conscription for the Danish Army, Colonel Kenneth Strøm, told Foreign Correspondent.

"[Conscripting women] is obviously to have enough boots on the ground. We need all the best young men and women in the armed forces."

The recruitment drive aims to grow Denmark's reserve army from about 5,000 annual conscripts to about 7,500 by 2033.

Denmark is ramping up its military spending too.

A Danish warship patrols the coast of Nuuk, Greenland, in January. (Reuters: Mads Claus Rasmussen)

The national defence budget has grown to almost $23 billion as the country invests in more F-35 jets, long-range missiles, drones and ships.

Denmark's falling out with the US over Greenland has left it all the more exposed to Russia, says intelligence analyst Jacob Kaarsbo, by exposing deep divisions between the US and Europe.

"I'm sure Putin would be delighted with what he's seeing, this whole rupture of NATO and rupture between Europe and the US," Mr Kaarsbo said.

It's "what the Kremlin has been striving for for many years".

A pivotal moment for NATO

For now, Greenland has been a "wake-up call" and "a pivotal turning point" for NATO members like Denmark, Mr Kaarsbo said.

He warns that US threats to invade an ally is "likely the end of NATO as we know it" and that Europe must now forge a military alliance that does not rely on the US.

"The issue of Greenland was really so fundamental," he said.

"I think there's much more of a realisation now that the Europeans have to take care of European security on their own, and then we'll see what the US does."

Greenland is a territory caught between dreams of freedom and Donald Trump. (Lauren Day)

He said that would involve ramping up Europe's defence industrial base to become less reliant on US weapons and developing a command structure that can function independently.

Greenland has also exposed the failure of a more compliant approach to diplomacy with the US president, Mr Kaarsbo said, with European leaders already taking a harder line.

"They see this whole idea of treating Trump as a 'royal highness' doesn't work because the pressure will continue," he said.

"The question Europeans should ask themselves is how do we stand up to Russia without the US? Because we can't rely on a partner that is unreliable, so we need to figure it out."

With threats to the east and the west, it is a question Denmark is now racing to answer.

Watch NATO Under Attack tonight on Foreign Correspondent at 8pm on ABC TV, ABC iview and YouTube.

Her son enlisted to fight for Ukraine. When his body was identified, it brought relief.

 Extract from ABC News

By Europe correspondent Kathryn Diss

• Topic:War

18 minutes ago

Ruslana Bronovytska's son Dmytro was killed fighting for Ukraine. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Link copied

For two years, Ruslana Bronovytska's son Dmytro was missing in action.

He signed up to fight for Ukraine a year after Russia's full-scale invasion. But he didn't tell her, knowing she would try to make him stay. 

"I fell into a deep depression that barely allowed me to get out of bed. I would just lie there staring at the ceiling," she told the ABC.

Ruslana Bronovytska did not initially know her son had signed up to fight for his country. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Then in November last year, investigators contacted the family to say they had a DNA match. They were 99.9 per cent sure it was the body of Dmytro.

A month later, his remains were returned and Ruslana was finally able to bury her son.

"When I realised that my son was truly gone, it was an enormous blow to my psyche, my emotions, my inner world. But I understood that I would have to live with this," she said.

"Living in uncertainty is far harder than even receiving the news that you will have to say goodbye to your son."

Ruslana Bronovytska's son Dmytro was killed while fighting for Ukraine. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

The war in Ukraine reached a grim milestone this week, grinding into its fifth year.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, it is estimated hundreds of thousands of people — soldiers and civilians — have been killed on both sides.

The front lines have remained largely frozen for about two years. Authorities in Ukraine have categorised 80,000 people as "missing" over the past four years.

Ruslana's family is among a small fraction who have been reunited with their fallen loved one.

"Having a grave to visit is better than not knowing whether he lies buried somewhere under rubble or was tortured in a Russian prison," she said.

Australian forensic anthropologist Soren Blau spends weeks at a time in Ukraine, helping local authorities with the heavy caseload the mortuaries face.

"One of the remarkable things about Ukraine is that they're actively pursuing identification and investigation at the time where we've still got ongoing conflict," she said.

Her extensive CV includes work in challenging environments in East Timor, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uzbekistan.

During her two decades as a forensic anthropologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, she has also been faced with identifying victims of the Black Saturday bushfires.

Australian forensic anthropologist Soren Blau spends weeks at a time in Ukraine. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

In perhaps her most famous case, she was among a team involved in the examination of Ned Kelly's remains.

The scale of the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine is on a level she's never witnessed before.

"No country can really deal with the numbers that they're currently having to examine and record," she said.

"The [families] are absolutely critical, they are at the heart of this process. The sort of key point in all of this is actually a missing person's report. So, our engagement with families is critical."

Ukraine's identification centres have the difficult job of trying to return the bodies of soldiers to their loved ones. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

From a missing person's report, pathologists can gather DNA samples that help laboratories and mortuaries identify bodies, which in many cases are being returned unrecognisable.

"Deceased persons may take some time to be recovered from the battlefield. They may have been kept by Russia for some time until they're repatriated across to Ukraine," she said.

"Sometimes the people are very poorly preserved and that also has an impact on the types of processes that we can use to ultimately try to identify these people."

Soren Blau has been sharing her expertise with colleagues in Ukraine. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Dr Blau is now the head of the Archaeology and Anthropology Division at the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and works with an identification centre near Kyiv.

She's helping teams on the ground manage the huge amounts of data they are gathering on missing persons and offering specialised training when it comes to identifying difficult cases in which bodies are beyond recognition.

"All of this work is to be able to ideally give families their loved ones back so that they can not just have a funeral, but also as you can imagine all the legal processes if you don't have for example your husband … tax, inheritance, child welfare, the day-to-day implications of not knowing the fate of your loved ones, let alone emotionally, is so critical," she said.

Ruslana Bronovytska has been coming to terms with the death of her son. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

'The pain will remain forever'

Vitalii Levchenko is the head of the identification centre Dr Blau has been working with.

He said while a few international pathologists could not physically make a huge dent in their caseload, they bring modern techniques to their laboratories.

"Methodologically they teach us scientific approaches, to get rid of, let's say, the outdated Soviet legacy in forensic medical examination," he said.

"People like Soren, or her other colleagues, open our eyes and make us more receptive to new methodologies, to non-standard responses to challenges."

Vitalyi Levchenko oversees work at the identification centre near Kyiv. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Mr Levchenko reflected on how his work as a forensic medical pathologist had dramatically changed since the war, from trying to find a killer to knowing exactly who it is.

"The primary focus was establishing the cause of death, the time since death, and all surrounding facts," he said.

"Now we all perfectly know who killed our soldiers, so the primary issue is precisely the identification of these bodies."

Ukraine does not release its official casualty numbers, but multiple groups estimate them to be in the hundreds of thousands. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Last year, officials in Moscow and Kyiv met in Istanbul and signed a repatriation deal that would see the bodies of more soldiers returned to their home lands.

Since then, Ukraine has received on average about 1,000 bodies each month for identification.

"We feel our mission, because someone is defending Ukraine in the trenches, and we are also making our contribution to the mission," Mr Levchenko said.

"We are trying to return the fallen to their families."

Repatriating the dead is one thing, identifying the body and returning them to their family is another and in some cases this process can take years.

Identifying Ukraine's casualties can be time-consuming work. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

Intergovernmental organisations like the ICMP, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, is providing expertise and funding to help Ukraine establish the framework to carry out such a mammoth task.

"They constitute the highest numbers of missing persons on European soil since World War II. So that's a lot to swallow. It's huge," ICMP director general Kathryne Bomberger told the ABC.

She said it was not just about building the physical infrastructure like more laboratories or mortuaries, but their work was about changing Ukrainian legislation to allow for DNA samples to be processed outside the country.

Ukraine's identification centres have been overwhelmed by the bodies of soldiers. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

At the moment, ICMP is processing DNA samples at its laboratory in The Hague, but it is a slow and laborious process with samples only released by court order, one case at a time.

"They were just taking biological reference samples. So … it's just post-mortem samples, a small piece of the bone or other biological data," she said.

"But this also requires a large-scale collection of genetic reference samples, because ultimately what you're doing is you're matching the genetic reference samples of the relatives to the mortal remains that are unidentified."

Containers holding the bodies of dead soldiers at an identification centre near Kyiv, pictured in 2026. (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

On a recent tour of the facilities in Ukraine, Ms Bomberger knocked on the doors of several foreign embassies, including Australia's, in a bid to drum up financial support for their work.

The Australian government does not currently provide any funding to the ICMP, but Ms Bomberger is hopeful that might change in the future.

For mothers like Ruslana, the pain of losing a child won't ever go away.

Ruslana Bronovytska says the pain of losing her son "will remain forever". (ABC News: Lisa Bukreyeva)

On the day of Dmytro's funeral, Ruslana decided not to look at his corpse, choosing instead to remember him as she knew him.

"No normal person can truly comprehend how it is possible that parents bury their children," she said.

"But sadly, the war has treated us cruelly and unjustly. The pain will remain forever."

Australian exporters on notice as Trump tariff policy thrown into uncertainty.

Extract from ABC News

By business correspondent David Taylor and business reporter Emilia Terzon

• Topic:Tariffs

51 minutes ago

Business owner Steve Philpott is one of many Australian exporters that will need to navigate the economic environment carefully over the coming weeks and months. (ABC News: Daniel Irvine)

In short:

Business groups have expressed concern about the uncertainties that lay ahead of Australian exporters.

The US Supreme Court decided to invalidate many of Donald Trump's so-called "reciprocal" tariff hikes, leading the American president to announce a 15 per cent tariff on all imports.

What's next?

The court ruling has left open the possibility that the US government could need to pay back the billions in tariff revenue it has already collected.

Link copied

The business community has expressed deep concern about US trade policy uncertainty, with the highest American court striking down tariffs, leading Donald Trump to announce a 15 per cent levy across the board.

The US Supreme Court voted to invalidate many of the US president's tariff hikes, which targeted particular countries with steep tariffs.

The US Supreme Court's take-down of Trump's tariffs explained

The ruling on tariffs is a hugely consequential decision that has infuriated the president, who is now looking for workarounds.

Instead, Mr Trump said goods imported into the US will be hit with a 15 per cent tariff, but some products will be exempt, such as critical minerals, metals and pharmaceuticals.

Separate tariffs on steel, aluminium, lumber and automotives — introduced using a different US law — remain in place because they are unaffected by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, said while the decision was "expected", it "throws a number of things into uncertainty".

"The US administration won't give up [on its trade policy agenda]," Mr McKellar said.

'Here we go again'

Swimwear business owner Steve Philpott is one of many Australian exporters that will need to navigate the economic environment carefully over the coming weeks and months.

"I just kind of laughed to myself and [thought] 'here we go again'.

"We're the importer, so we import to the US and it usually clears in California," the boss of Bond Eye swimwear told ABC News.

"We have definitely paid in excess of $1 million in tariffs.

"We have to absorb that [so] we have to get smarter in how we do things."

Mr Philpott said Bond Eye's latest shipment has already cleared customs and the swimwear business is "just figuring it out as we go".

Bombshell ruling by US Supreme Court kills tariffs

The US president says he is "absolutely ashamed" of members of the court who struck down his global tariffs after finding he lacked the authority to implement them.

ACCI's Mr McKellar said many businesses could be caught out by the "complex" situation in coming weeks.

"[Businesses] should continue to work with government in a calm and methodical way," he said.

Writing contracts and agreeing to commercial terms has now become particularly challenging in light of the policy changes, the business lobbyist said.

"[Exporters] can put something on a plane and something can change mid-air.

"Where does the liability rest in that situation?"

Heightened economic uncertainty ahead

Economists have warned heightened uncertainty could persist for months to come.

"Even the latest lift in tariffs requires congressional approval within five months," Betashares chief economist David Bassanese said, referring to the 15 per cent tariff Mr Trump announced after his Supreme Court defeat.

"With Republicans having only slim majority, the omens are not good.

"It will only require a few congressional members to find their backbone in the same way that a majority of Supreme Court judges have done."

After a rare Supreme Court loss for Trump, here's his record with the bench

Donald Trump was furious when the US Supreme Court ruled that his use of tariffs was illegal. Here's how earlier cases in that jurisdiction have fared.

Mr Bassanese said the US administration may well go down the path of implementing a range of sector-specific tariffs to address perceived unfair trade practices aboard.

But this may well "be more piecemeal — and would seem to rule out the continued use of across the board national tariffs threats for pure political coercion," he said.

"What's more, as we've seen with the Greenland threats earlier this year, Trump may well face greater global retaliation if he seeks to reopen trade deals through the launch of more tariff threats."

Fashion business founder Tom Wilson says the timing of any possible tariff refunds from the US would be critical for his cashflow. (ABC News: Dean Caton)

Tariff payback?

A question also remains about whether the US government will need to pay back the billions in tariff revenue it has already collected in light on the Supreme Court ruling.

Fashion business founder Tom Wilson said the timing of any possible tariff refunds would be critical for his cashflow.

"It is insane to think a US president has stolen money from me," the owner of swim shirt label The Nashie said of the impact of the tariffs.

"[It's] not something I thought was on the cards this year."

The timing of any import tariff refund to Australian businesses, Mr Bassanese said, "will likely depend on further court disputation".

Americans fearing democracy's death have been given a glimmer of hope

Until now, Donald Trump has been one of the most unstoppable presidents ever. But the Supreme Court's tariffs decision proves there are limits to his power.

In terms of what it means for the US government's budget, Mr Bassanese said the 15 per cent tariff, even if only temporary, "will make up for revenue shortfalls for the next few months".

Over the longer-run, it now seems likely that tariff revenue will not be able to offset the budget revenue loss from Mr Trump's other key policy since his return to office — the so-called "big beautiful bill", legislating tax cuts and spending.

"This will leave the US budget position as perilous as ever," Mr Bassanese warned.

Market analysts have said they are watching global bond markets to see if the latest tariff developments are reigniting concerns over the US budget position.

A sharp increase in bond yields, as a result of bond selling, would point to potential concerns over the US government's ability to service its debt.

"The other key market implication is that Trump's likely efforts to reinstitute his tariff strategy — one way or another — risks re-stoking global trade tensions, and in an environment in which trading partners may now feel more emboldened to threaten retaliation," David Bassanese said.

The Australian Industry Group (AIG) has called for this year's G20 to focus on garnering support for a single global economic agenda, to reduce business stress.

"Almost 20 years ago the top 20 economies came together to collectively respond to the global financial crisis," AIG CEO Innes Willox told the ABC.

"The US is host of the G20 this year, and the rules based trading system needs to be on the agenda.

"Businesses capacity to endure this kind of economic volatility is diminishing."

Arab and Muslim nations condemn Mike Huckabee's suggestion Israel could claim biblical right to territory.

 Extract from ABC News

By Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran

• Topic:World Politics

55 minutes ago

Mike Huckabee says he believes Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)

In short:

Arab and Muslim nations have strongly condemned comments made by the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

Mr Huckabee suggested Israel could claim a biblical right to territory beyond its borders in the Middle East.

The foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine labelled the comments "dangerous and inflammatory".

Link copied

Arab and Muslim nations have expressed "strong condemnation and profound concern" over comments from the United States ambassador to Israel, suggesting Israel could claim a biblical right to territory far beyond its borders in the Middle East.

Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, was being interviewed by right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson, who he had invited to Israel after the former Fox News host criticised the country's treatment of Christians in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Carlson questioned the ambassador about his interpretation of Genesis chapter 15, verse 18 in the Old Testament.

"Abram, it's pre-Abraham, it's Abram, receives from God the news that his descendants will inherit the land — and you tell me as the theologian if I'm getting this wrong — but from the Euphrates to the Nile, I think that's right," Carlson said.

"And that would include basically the entire Middle East — that would be the Levant, so that would be Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon. It would also be big parts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq."

Mr Huckabee said he was not sure it would "go that far" and that "it would be a big piece of land".

"This particular area that we're talking about now, Israel is a land that God gave through Abraham to a people that he chose," the ambassador said.

"It was a people, a place, and a purpose — we can look at it that way."

Carlson pressed him, asking him to be specific about what land he was talking about.

"I just read Genesis 15, as I have many times, and that land, I think it says from the Nile to the Euphrates, which is once again basically the entire Middle East," the commentator said.

"So God gave that land to his people, the Jews, or he didn't — you're saying he did. What does that mean?

Mike Huckabee visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem last year. (Reuters: Ronen Zvulun)

"Does Israel have the right to that land? Because you're appealing to Genesis. You're saying that's the original deed."

Mr Huckabee replied that it "would be fine if they took it all", before adding that Israel did not want to take it over, suggesting it was a "hyperbolic statement".

"I think you're missing something because they're not asking to go back to take all of that," the ambassador said.

"But they are asking to at least take the land that they now occupy, they now live in, they now own legitimately, and it is a safe haven for them."

Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza is considered illegal under international law.

Rhetoric labelled inflammatory

In a joint statement, the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine labelled Mr Huckabee's rhetoric as "dangerous and inflammatory".

"The ministries reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty whatsoever over the Occupied Palestinian Territory or any other occupied Arab lands," the countries said.

Herzog visits Sydney, Israel tightens grip on West Bank

While Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Sydney, his government was taking concrete actions in the West Bank designed to "continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state".

"They reiterated their firm rejection of any attempts to annex the West Bank or separate it from the Gaza Strip, their strong opposition to the expansion of settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and their categorical rejection of any threat to the sovereignty of Arab states.

"They further warned that the continuation of Israel's expansionist policies and unlawful measures will only inflame violence and conflict in the region and undermine the prospects for peace and called for an end to these incendiary statements."

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has advocated for the total annexation of Palestinian territory and the removal of Palestinians from the land, issued a rare English post on social media in response to the interview.

He said he loved Mr Huckabee, and added Israeli and US flag emojis.

Tucker Carlson has been critical of Israel. (Reuters: Elijah Nouvelage)

Carlson has been a vocal critic of Israel in recent times, labelling it "probably the most violent country on Earth" in a monologue featured in the same episode as the Huckabee interview.

He also lashed out at Israeli authorities for what he described as hostile questioning of his staff when they arrived at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport — claims the nation's airport authority denied.

This month, a survey of more than 40,000 people from across the Arab world was released by the Arab Center Washington DC, a US-based think tank.

Twenty-eight per cent of those surveyed said Israel presented the greatest threat to the security of the region, while 10 per cent said it was the United States.

Eight per cent cited Iran as the greatest threat.