The answer is No, Arabs fear the US and Israel, not Iran.
According to a face to face survey in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates close to 80 percent of Arabs consider Israel and the United States the two biggest external threats to their security. Only six percent cited Iran.
The poll was conducted in November and early December 2006, by Zogby International and designed by Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Asked to volunteer their favorite leader, the weighted aggregate of 14 percent named Nasrallah; eight percent, Chirac; four percent, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and three percent, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. "These are people who are seen to have stood up to the U.S..Not a single one is a Sunni Arab." The least favorite leader was George Bush!
Asked about objectives of US policy in the middle east:
75%: "controlling oil"
69%: "protecting Israel"
69%: "weakening the Muslim World
68%: "the desire to dominate the region."
Only 9%: "promoting democracy."
Take note of Iranian Hegemony as the new buzz word coming out of Washington; it is not the terrorism, it is not the "bomb", it is not the fabiracted weapons' evidence anymore. Now, it is the Iranian Hegemony that they have to stop!
Thank you Furgaia for the link.
4 comments:
Why the hell should Arabs fear Iran, a country that with no history of territorial aggression in the past two or so centuries?
By the way, check this and the subsequent comments.
Hugo Chavez is no saint. He does not use language suitable for a respectable man.
Even though he is anti-US, I don't like him much.
Hi Manas,
Trust me I don't like what Ahmadinejad has to say much either. I don't have a problem with what he says, but I have problem with his lack of consideration about how his metaphoric blabber gets translated into the most undiplomatic rhetoric. He just speaks without thinking, I think he feels he is smart or interesting or beautiful or something ... ugly man!
But, I suspect what Chavez says is also "missed in translation". And even if not, I prefer the ugly language of the underdog, to the physical abuse and actual bullying of the "nice well versed" Americans (well oke Bush is not well versed!)
Between a bully physical and a blunt's verbal abuse, I prefer the blunt one's!
Yes Ahmadinejad's gambling, but I am getting uneasy with his moves.
And yes he is more appealing to his external supporters. Truth be told, there was loud anger expressed against their chumminess with Hezbollah.
And yes, he was the little pet of the grand leader, but there is a lot of friction within the clergy at the moment.
What will have EASILY toppled Ahmadinejad would have been his economic MISTAKES. But thanks to the Bushaggression, we are stuck with this idiot! And frankly, I trust supporters of Ahmadinejad to put up a fight for Iran should anything happen to her. I trust them more than I trust the hollow promises of the Europeans, be they Russian, German or French. And Americans, NO WAY!
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