U.S. Falls Out of Favor With NATO Ally

By Marc Champion

Associated Press

President Barack Obama listens to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their 2009 meeting in the Oval Office.

The latest global poll by the Pew Research Center released Wednesday makes grim reading for U.S. diplomats trying to turn the Arab Spring to Washington’s advantage, and most of all anyone tasked with improving relations with NATO ally Turkey.

Of the six Muslim nations polled in the region, not one showed a majority of opinion in favor of the U.S. And in every nation but Egypt, the popularity of the U.S. fell since a year ago.

The U.S. gets close to majority approval in Lebanon, at 49%, while Egypt was next with 20% — after all, the U.S. eventually did the right thing in the eyes of Egyptians by calling for the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.

But this year the lowest approval rating of all for the U.S. was in Turkey — at just 10%, down from 17% last year. U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to give a major speech on the Middle East Thursday, didn’t fare much better. Only 12% of Turks said they had confidence in President Obama, against 73% who didn’t.

The image of the U.S. has declined significantly across the Middle East since the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq war. Washington continues to be seen as acting without concern for the interests of other nations in the region and is widely seen as a potential military threat by those who live in the region — including 91% of Palestinians and 59% of Turks, according to the survey.

It isn’t hard to figure out why U.S. popularity might have dwindled further in Turkey over the past year. Since the last Pew poll, the U.S. — in the view of most Turks — failed to support Ankara when Israeli commandoes boarded a mainly Turkish aid flotilla for Gaza, killing eight Turkish citizens and one American of Turkish descent. The U.S. also rejected a deal that Turkey and had Brazil agreed with Iran to swap low enriched Iranian nuclear fuel for fuel rods, which was seen here as a snub.

But Turks may also see the U.S. as a competitor for leadership in the region as Ankara claims an increasing role across the Middle East. Only 8% of Turks approved of the way the U.S. handled the Arab uprisings, compared to 45% of Egyptians, 31% of Jordanians and 33% of Palestinians.

There is good news in the data for anyone worried about Turkish Islamism, though. Turks were by far the least likely of the nations polled to say that the country’s laws should be based on the teachings of the Quran — at just 8%. That compares with 78% in Pakistan and 70% in Jordan.

And while Turks are strongly anti-Israel and opposed to U.S. policies on the Palestinian question, only 10% say they approve of Hamas (compared with 45% of Egyptians), while just 5% of Turks approve of Hezbollah and 4% of al Qaeda.

The poll of roughly 1,000 people in each country was conductaed before the U.S. shooting of Osama bin Laden.

via U.S. Falls Out of Favor With NATO Ally – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.