FROM THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN ARAB YOUTH SURVEY SHINES
Most now regard the United States as an enemy, view Russia as an ally, and think the US election result was bad news
America’s long decline as a role model for young Arabs has continued under the presidency of Donald Trump. And in worse news for the US and its allies, young Arabs now see Russia as the rising force in the region.
The change in perception began under former president Barack Obama, who held back from military intervention in Syria and is regarded in the Arabian Gulf as being dangerously weak in the face of Iran’s regional aggression.
Asked who was their country’s biggest ally, the young Arabs left the US out of the top five for the first time.
Most respondents named the UAE, at 37 per cent, followed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Russia came in at fourth, with one in five young Arabs saying the Putin regime was their biggest ally.
Moscow’s military intervention in Syria and its support of President Bashar Al Assad are undoubtedly a major factor in the change of attitude.
Hussein Ibish, senior scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and columnist
In the Levant, which includes Lebanon and Jordan, one in three regard Russia as the top non-Arab ally
for The National, said Russia’s long absence from Middle East politics had left Moscow with “something of a clean slate”.
While many young Arabs strongly disapproved of the Syrian regime, “Russia has created the impression of being a strong and decisive power, a steadfast ally, a force for stability and state sovereignty, and a winner”, Mr Ibish said.
“Nothing succeeds like success.”
In the Levant, which includes Lebanon and Jordan, one in three regard Russia as the top non-Arab ally, a view that was held by only 9 per cent of responents in 2016.
America’s stock has fallen from 25 per cent to 13 per cent in the same period.
When asked how they saw the US in relation to their country, nearly six out of 10 young Arabs across the Mena region described Washington as an enemy. This proportion rose to 65 per cent in the Levant but even in the GCC, 55 per cent took a hostile view of US intentions.
The reasons behind America’s decline are varied but 73 per cent think the election of Mr Trump will have a negative effect on the region. More than half are encouraged by the US withdrawal from Iraq, but 60 per cent think the deal with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, something Mr Trump says he will overturn, was a negative move.