Poll shows Obama making in roads in Arab world

Satisfaction rates of the performance of the American administration in Egypt has increased nearly 6 times, rising from only 6 percent in 2008 to 37 percent in 2009, according to a survey conducted by the American Research Center Gallup of 113 countries. However, the survey showed that 39 percent of Egyptians are still not satisfied with the performance of the American leadership, while 25 percent did not express a particular opinion.

Egypt was one of the Arab countries that the survey showed an increase in the level of satisfaction of citizens on the performance of the American leadership in 2009 compared to 2008. Obama chose the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to be his platform to deliver a speech to the Muslim world last June and this likely played into a proportion of his popularity, the pollers argued.

The level of Saudi Arabia’s satisfaction on the performance of the U.S Administration also increased to 26 percent in 2009, up 14 percent from 2008, while the percentage of Saudis who are dissatisfied with the American Role reached 63 percent, according to the survey.

In the United Arab Emirates 34 percent said they were satisfied with the performance of American leadership and 48 percent said they were dissatisfied. In Qatar the percentage of people satisfied with the performance of the U.S. leadership was about 22 percent and the percentage of opponents 52 percent.

It is noteworthy that the Palestinians were the Arab people who expressed negative feelings toward the performance of the American leadership in 2009, where only 20 percent of the Palestinians expressed support for the performance of the Obama administration in 2009, compared with 70 percent expressing dissatisfaction.

**reporting by Mohamed Abdel Salam

BM