This House believes the Middle East would be better off with John McCain in the White House

Tuesday October 28 2008
MOTION REJECTED by 13% to 87%

Opinion poll

DOHA DEBATES POLL: ARABS SAY IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS “INTOLERABLE”;;

Doha, Qatar November 25, 2008 -- 40 percent of Iraqis would have Washington bomb Iran to halt its nuclear weapons programme, while more than half of all Arabs share the US view that a nuclear-armed Tehran is intolerable.

The opinions emerged in a YouGov poll, commissioned by The Doha Debates. The audience at the most recent Debate voted by a large margin that the region would be better off with an Obama administration.

According to the poll, 60 percent urge the next president to negotiate with Tehran and count the nuclear issue as one his top three foreign policy priorities.

Arabs also believe President-elect Obama would make a better mediator than more established figures such as Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa, France's President Sarkozy and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

In all, some 60 percent say Senator Obama will be a better president than George W. Bush, but little more than a third believe he can turn the US into a "force for good".
 
The survey of Middle Eastern attitudes to America's presidential election involved 850 respondents in North Africa, the Gulf, Levant and Iraq and was conducted between November 6 and 11. 

Polling dates: 6-11 November, 2008

Download the polling data [PDF]

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