US president-elect Donald Trump says he is going to nominate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian, is a staunch supporter of Israel and defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, considered illegal by most of the international community.

“He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump said.

Huckabee, 69, has criticised President Joe Biden for pressuring Israel to moderate its conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip.

“If a person is pro-Israel, how can you be pro-Biden because the Biden administration has made it very clear they will make concessions to Hamas,” Huckabee said in an interview in March on News Nation.

Huckabee was Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007. He fell short in bids for the Republican nomination for president in 2008 and 2016.

His daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is the current governor of Arkansas. She was Trump’s White House press secretary from 2017-2019.

Trump earlier on Tuesday (local time) picked Republican representative and former Army Green Beret Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.

Trump has spent most of his first week as US president-elect behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, where he is working the phones, reconnecting with foreign leaders and building his new administration.

Trump is expected to return to public view on Wednesday, when he goes to the White House to meet Biden and visits the Capitol to consult House Speaker Mike Johnson.