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Inter Press Service – December 14, 2006
Losing Arab allies' hearts and minds
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Dec 14, 2006 (IPS) - Attitudes towards the United States reached new lows through most of the Arab world over the past year, according to the findings of a major new survey of five Arab countries released here Thursday by Zogby International and the Arab American Institute (AAI).
Based on 3,500 face-to-face interviews of randomly selected adult respondents in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, the survey found that the continuing deterioration in Washington's image was due primarily to U.S. policies in the region, particularly with respect to Iraq, Palestine, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Lebanon.
But it also found that attitudes towards U.S. cultural and political values have also become increasingly negative, compared to previous years' surveys, although not nearly as negative as Arab views of specific policies.
Particularly remarkable, negative opinions towards the United States have skyrocketed in two key Arab monarchies long considered close allies of Washington, according to the survey.
Nine of 10 Jordanian respondents said they held predominantly negative views of the U.S., up from only 32 percent on early 2005. Likewise 87 percent of Moroccans said their views of the U.S. were unfavourable, up from 64 percent last year.
At least as worrisome to U.S. policymakers, a major beneficiary of growing Arab anger at Washington appeared to be Iran, according to AAI president James Zogby, who also acted as a consultant to Zogby International.
"As America's numbers go down, Iran's goes up," he told reporters. "That's the reality, and we're playing right into it."
While Arab leaders, including those with predominantly Sunni populations, "are very much concerned (about rising Iranian influence), the Arab public has a very different view," he said, noting that the survey results showed that most respondents were not worried about Iran's nuclear program, particularly compared to Iraq and Palestine.
More than seven in 10 respondents in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Morocco, as well as a majority in Lebanon, said U.S. efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program contributed to their negative views of Washington.
The new survey, the third in a series that began in 2002, comes amid growing controversy here over the Bush administration's policies in both Iraq and the broader Middle East.
Public confidence in the U.S. in Bush's approach to the Iraq war, in particular, has plummeted, especially since last month's Democratic sweep of the mid-term Congressional elections. The long-awaited release last week of the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group (ISG), which called for a major overhaul of U.S. policies toward the region, including the engagement of Iran and Syria and a major new diplomatic effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, has further fueled the fierce debate…..
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