Americans favor Egypt best

A survey conducted by the Gallup Center, said that 58 percent of Americans expressed positive opinions about Egypt, compared with 29 percent expressing negative views towards the country. This placed Egypt first among Arab countries that received positive views by Americans, and eighth among the 20 surveyed.

Saudi Arabia was ranked second after Egypt among Arab countries covered by the survey. It said over 35 percent of Americans hold favorable views toward Saudi Arabia, however, some 60 percent held negative views towards the Gulf kingdom.

According to the survey, whose results were highlighted by America in Arabic news agency, less than one-quarter of Americans, 23 percent, held positive views toward Iraq, while 73 percent expressed some negative views towards the country the United States has more than 100,000 troops in.

With regard to Yemen, only 21 percent of Americans hold favorable views toward, compared with 56 percent who expressed negative attitudes toward.

Only one out of every five American expressed positive views towards the Palestinian Authority. On the flip side, 70 percent expressed negative views towards the PA.

Canada topped the overall list of countries reported in the survey, with over 90 percent of Americans holding favorable views towards their neighbor to the north.

Great Britain followed Canada with 87 percent, then Germany (80 percent), followed by Japan (77 percent), Israel (67 percent), India (66 percent) and France (63 percent).

Iran, with major negative media coverage, was at the bottom of the list of the 20 countries surveyed with only 10 percent of Americans holding favorable views toward the country, as opposed to 85 percent expressing negative views.

The results of the survey were based on telephone interviews with 1025 Americans and was conducted between February 1 – 3, this year.

**reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam

BM