Newly appointed US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, sat down on Friday with Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council (FRC), at the US Embassy in Jerusalem to discuss nuclear negotiations between the United States and the Ayatollahs in Iran.
The Ambassador laid the groundwork by first establishing the type of hostile regime the United States and Israel are dealing with in these negotiations.
“For forty-six years, [Iran has] been under the rule of the Ayatollahs, and they have been very adamant that their goal is to destroy Israel and then destroy the United States,” he underscored, also noting the two plots by the regime to assassinate President Trump. “We are looking at a nation that has a long history of doing everything that it says it’s going to do.”
While it is his hope and ongoing prayer that a deal would be agreed upon and kept, the Ambassador remarked that he is “not overtly optimistic.”
“There is a lot at stake if something doesn’t happen,” he emphasized. “The President has been adamant that they are not going to get nuclear weapons. They are adamant they are. That’s a stalemate.”
“I think I know President Trump well enough to know he’s not kidding,” Huckabee cautioned.
“The honest answer when people say, ‘Do you have any hope that this will result in some type of negotiated peace settlement with the Iranian government?’ All I can do is say, ‘I hope so,’ because I would rather see that than war,” Ambassador Huckabee stressed. “They are not going to get nuclear weapons. So the question is, do they realize that? Do they risk the control of their regime just for the pride of saying they’re going to push forward?”
The countries neighboring the Islamic Republic are also adamantly opposed to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Those fears served as a key motivation for Arab nations to join the Abarahm Accords, normalizing relations with Israel during the first Trump administration.
“Quite frankly,” Huckabee continued, “even their Muslim neighbors don’t want them to have a nuclear weaponโany more than you would want a 16-year-old boy to have keys to a Lamborghini and a bottle of whiskey.”
The Ambassador went on to lament the shift that occurred in Iran 46 years ago when the Ayatollahs took power, calling it “one of the great tragedies of the last 200 years.”
“Iran, before the Ayatollahs, was one of the most educated places on earthโincredibly aligned with the United States,” he highlighted. “What they represented was a very modern, delightful culture. They were focused on education and advancement and science and innovation.”
Huckabee recalled that in 2009, the Iranian people were on the brink of taking the country back from the Ayatollahs. Unfortunately, the Obama administration, admittedly, failed to voice any support for what was called “the Green Movement” in Iran.
“If he could have just said, ‘We support the people who are seeking to be free and to unshackle themselves from this totalitarian government,’ it might have been a tipping point,” the Ambassador stated. “Instead, he was totally silentโeven as the young lady was murdered in the street and the blood [ran] out of her head. That picture kind of showed the end of the Green Movement.”
If that movement had been successful, we would be looking at a very different Middle East. Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism, which helped plan and finance the terrorism of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and other Rebel groups in Iraq and Syria.
Not only have the Ayatollahs openly called for the eradication of Israel, but they have also used their proxies to attack the Jewish Stateโmost notably on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas brutally massacred 1,200 Israelis.
As Israel faces this ongoing threat from Iran, Perkins, who led a delegation of Christian leaders to Israel last week, asked Huckabee how evangelicals in America should be praying.
Ambassador Huckabee began by noting the Biblical instruction to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” found in Psalm 122:6.
“I think what they need to do is become informed,” he advised. “I’m really concerned that we’re seeing a lot of evangelicals in the States who act like, ‘Well, Israel doesn’t even matter; it’s not even important to us.’ I want them to better understand, not only does it matter, but why it matters.”
“If evangelicals educate themselves first in the scripture, that’s key,” Huckabee urged. “Then, in understanding this land, its people, and what they’re up against, I think we will see a resurgence of evangelical support for the state of Israel.”
