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WASHINGTON, Dec 2: Arab nations are acutely suspicious of the Bush administration’s ‘democracy’ agenda in the Middle East and believe the US invasion of Iraq has made the region less secure, said a poll released on Friday.
The poll, conducted in six Arab countries in October, found 78 per cent of respondents thought there was more terrorism because of the invasion, with four out of five saying the occupation had brought less peace to the region.
Asked which countries posed the biggest threat to their nations, a majority chose Israel and the United States.
“The one fascinating outcome of this study is that the respondents view the United States and its policies through the prism of Iraq and Israel,” said Prof Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland, who conducted the poll with Zogby International in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Rather than being a model to inspire Arab nations to adopt democratic goals, Mr Telhami said respondents felt the opposite was true of the United States, whose image has been tarnished by scandals involving abuse by US forces of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and at a US base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Bush administration has made spreading democracy in the Middle East a key foreign policy goal and the State Department has appointed a special envoy, Karen Hughes, to improve the US image abroad, especially in Muslim nations. During her overseas trips, however, Ms Hughes has been greeted with Muslim anger over Iraq.
In the new poll, 69 per cent of those surveyed doubted that spreading democracy was the real US objective. Oil, protecting Israel, dominating the region and weakening the Muslim world were seen as US goals.
“America’s presence in Iraq is seen as a negative. It is scaring people about American intentions and having the opposite intended impact on Arab public opinion,” Mr Telhami said in an interview.
More than half — 58 per cent — said Iraq was less democratic than before the invasion and three of four said Iraqis were worse off.
FRANCE AS SUPER POWER: Asked from a list of countries which they would like to be the superpower, the first choice was France with 21 per cent, followed by China with 13 per cent, Pakistan and Germany tied with 10 per cent, Britain with seven per cent, the United States with six per cent and finally Russia with five per cent.
“It’s troubling for the United States that people are rooting for other countries in this global (superpower) competition,” Mr Telhami said at a news conference.
France, which opposed the invasion of Iraq, was also seen as the country where people had the most freedom and its President Jacques Chirac, was the leader most admired by respondents.
The poll was taken before an outbreak of riots in France by disaffected youth, many of them Muslims of North African ethnicity, which provoked Muslim criticism of conditions for minorities in France.
Israeli President Ariel Sharon, US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were the most disliked by those polled.
On Iran, most of the respondents said the US adversary should have the right to a nuclear program and international pressure should cease while 21 per cent said it should be pressured to stop its nuclear ambitions.
Interviewers polled 800 people each from Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia; 500 each were questioned in Jordan and Lebanon and 217 were interviewed in the United Arab Emirates. —Reuters
