US Ambassador to Jerusalem Rebukes Pakistani Defense Minister Over Hateful Remarks
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee condemned Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif's inflammatory social media posts accusing Israel of atrocities.
Jerusalem, 10 April, 2026 (TPS-IL) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday blasted Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif after he attacked Israel on social media and accused it of atrocities in Lebanon.
In a post on X, Huckabee said he had seen firsthand that Israel seeks to avoid civilian casualties and argued that the country is fighting Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran-backed threats. He said peace would require stopping Iran and its proxy terrorist organizations.
Asif had earlier posted that Israel was “evil” and “a curse for humanity,” while accusing it of committing “genocide” in Lebanon as talks were underway in Islamabad.
He later escalated his rhetoric, accusing Israel of killing civilians in Gaza, Iran, and Lebanon, and attacking the legitimacy of the Jewish state in highly inflammatory terms.
The post was later deleted
The Office of the Prime Minister had earlier on issued a statement, calling Asif’s remarks “a call for Israel’s annihilation” and describing them as “outrageous.” The statement added that such language could not be tolerated from any government, “especially not from one that claims to be a neutral arbiter for peace.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, also condemned Asif’s remarks, saying a supposed mediator was echoing the language of Iran’s rulers and making clear that Israel’s existence was not open to negotiation.
