Huckabee to Newsmax: Iran 'At Its Weakest Since 1979' — Criticizes U.N., Defends Israel

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Newsmax on Saturday that Iran is currently "at its weakest" since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and credited former President Donald Trump with applying sustained military and economic pressure on Tehran.

Speaking on Newsmax's Saturday Report, Huckabee said how the U.S. president responds remains central as tensions with Iran continue.

"What I think we have to focus on is what President Trump said just a few minutes ago. The key thing to watch is how the president reacts, because he's ultimately going to make the decisions for the United States," Huckabee said.

Huckabee urged acknowledgment of what he described as Trump's willingness to confront Iran in ways previous administrations did not.

"The one thing the president has done that I think people need to give him a lot of credit for, he has stood up to Iran when other presidents just wouldn't go there. Thank goodness he's hit them militarily. He's hit them economically," he said. "The reality for them, they're the weakest they've been since the revolution of 1979."

He warned Tehran that unless it abandons nuclear ambitions and plans to develop long-range nuclear delivery systems, its position will not improve, in Huckabee's view.

Huckabee also praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the United Nations and echoed Netanyahu's criticism of New York City Council member Zohran Mamdani, a vocal critic of Israel's conduct in Gaza.

"I thought the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, made a tremendous speech because he showed up and he pushed back hard against some of the ridiculous criticisms," Huckabee said.

Rejecting accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — a charge Israel disputes and that remains the subject of international legal and political debate — Huckabee argued those claims contradict measures of population and humanitarian activity.

"If you're committing genocide, but the population of Gaza is growing 4%, then you obviously are not very good at genocide," he said. "If you send 700 trucks a day of humanitarian aid and food into the place where you're trying to kill everybody, you must not have read the manual on how to kill everybody."

He added that Israel's provision of an estimated one million polio vaccines to Gaza undermines claims that it seeks to annihilate the population: "If you're giving a million vaccines against polio to the people of Gaza, which is what Israel has done, why would you try to save the lives of people and protect them from polio if you really want them to all die?"

Netanyahu made similar points in his U.N. address, rejecting genocide allegations as false.

Huckabee concluded by sharply criticizing the United Nations for what he described as a tendency to single out Israel, pointing to other global abuses and accusing the U.N. of disproportionate scrutiny of the Jewish state.

"I have a hard time taking the U.N. seriously," Huckabee said. "In the entire world, there are only 16 million Jews. So if they're the greatest threat to the whole world, that small in number, I guess the U.N. is just not real good at math."

Reporting: Newsmax. The statements above reflect Huckabee's comments on the program; several of the factual claims he cited — including humanitarian figures and demographic rates — are contested in international debate and are treated here as his assertions.