In 2009, a special poll commissioned by the Al-Zughbi International Foundation for Polls and presented at the Brookings Institution found that Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad was the region’s most popular leader among the publics of six large Arab states.
Today, a poll released by the Arab American Institute (AAI) that gauged the opinions of people in Morocco, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon finds that support for Assad has all but evaporated. In every single country polled, a majority of respondents said they are more sympathetic to demonstrators than Assad’s government. Support for the government didn’t extend past single-digits. Meanwhile, overwhelming majorities in every country do not believe that Assad can continue to govern:
AAI president Dr. Jim Zogby spoke at the poll’s release this morning. Zogby noted that Assad’s standing has slowly collapsed over the past few years as he violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests in the past few months. Watch Zogby’s remarks:
Read the full poll results here.
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