Staff Reporter
A POLL conducted recently among citizens of six Arab countries has showed an overall anti-American attitude, a US-based researcher told a session of the US-Islamic World Forum 2007.
The poll, conducted by Prof Shibley Telhami in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, showed that 75% of the people in these countries believed that democratisation was not the real objective of the US campaigns, including the Iraqi war, in the Middle East. Only 14% believed that the US has an “important objective” but it is being executed the wrong way.
Telhami said that 84% of the people in these countries believed that the Iraqi war “created more terrorists”. Some 86% of them said there was “less peace” in the region since the ouster of Saddam Hussain.
On the consequences of the war on Iraq, 31% said that country might be divided and 28% believed that the US would continue to dominate Iraq even after the full transfer of power.
The poll showed that the surveyed people in these countries believed that the United States posed the second biggest threat to them after Israel. The UK came in the third place.
The most surprising result, the researcher said, was that 41% of the people in the six Arab countries believed that Iran was trying to develop nuclear weapons, against 29% of them who believed that Iran was conducting research for peaceful
purposes.
However, 63% said that the pressure against Iran to stop its nuclear activity must cease against 17% who supported the international demands for Tehran to end its nuclear programme.
Telhemi said that US President George W Bush was the second most disliked politician among the questioned people after the former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.
British premier Tony Blair came third (2%). Only 1% of them said that they admired the American president. French president Jack Chirac was the most admired politician (18%).
A total of 39% of the people questioned said that they sympathised with Al Qaeda because it “confronts the US”.
The majority of the people (81%) put “oil’ as the first objective of the US in the region. |
