AMMAN — A new poll in Jordan commissioned
in March by the Washington Institute documents surprisingly high public
disapproval of “Russia’s military actions” in Ukraine.
اضافة اعلان
In contrast, Jordan’s ties to the US garner greater
support, especially in the security realm. In addition, the generational
differences in attitudes among Jordanian adults over the age of 30 and under in
response to these and other questions in the survey were very limited, an
analysis of the survey concluded.
It went to say that given that political opinion
polls are relatively public and acceptable in Jordan, and because the
government is believed to pay some attention to them, these results suggest
that the Kingdom realizes that there is a comfortable margin for maneuver in
the direction of its overall foreign policy. Also, on the more important
domestic issue, at least a small majority (53 percent of Jordanians) agreed
with the following statement: “It is good that we are not witnessing mass
protests in the street against corruption these days as is happening in other
Arab countries or as happened in the past.” However, the exception to this
prevailing popular support is the possibility of expanding the scope of
normalization with Israel, which remains an unpopular issue among Jordanians.
When asked about “Russian military steps in
Ukraine”, nearly three-quarters of Jordanians (72 percent) expressed a generally
negative opinion. In particular, two-thirds consider these Russian actions “the
reason behind the recent rise in food prices in the Kingdom.” Only 14 percent
considered establishing good ties with Russia as “very important” for Jordan,
while another quarter (27 percent) consider these ties “somewhat important”.
In contrast, a relatively larger segment of
Jordanians considers good relations with the US either very important (18
percent) or somewhat important (34 percent). These percentages are roughly in line
with responses about relations with China, as they have been in other recent
surveys. Yet the US has a clear advantage over Russia, China, or any other
foreign country, in several major subcategories. The majority (43 percent)
chose the US as “the best country that can help protect us from external
enemies.” A smaller majority also sees the US as the outside power “that can
best promote human rights and democracy in our country” (37 percent).
The surprising result, given the prevailing media
narrative about the decline in American interest or influence in the Middle
East, is that a majority of Jordanians (39 percent) believe that the US is
still “the most influential country in our region ten years from now.” In
response to this question, Russia and China are statistically tied in second
place, with each receiving 25 percent and 26 percent each.
10%
of both young and old, support “to some extent” the Abraham Accords concluded in late 2020
Moreover, and interestingly, a majority of
Jordanians (56 percent) disagree with this assertive proposition: “We cannot
rely on the US these days, so we have to look more to Russia or China as
partners.” In this regard, Jordanians’ views differ somewhat from their
counterparts in the Arab Gulf, with recent polls showing that a slim majority
of Saudis, Emiratis, and Kuwaitis support this pessimistic conclusion about
American unreliability.
As for what Jordanians want most from the US, the
answers were mixed, with a slim majority (33 percent) opting for “helping us to
democratically resolve conflicts in the region.” It was closely followed by two
other options, each of which got about a quarter of the answers: “advanced
weapons for our armed forces,” or “investment, commercial and construction
projects.” On the other hand, a fourth option received an unexpectedly low
rate, which is only 15 percent, which is “showing respect for our religion and
culture.”
In stark contrast to any of these outside powers,
Iran received very low support in terms of perceived importance. Only 17
percent consider ties with Tehran “somewhat important” even for Jordan.
Likewise, a majority (60 percent) of Jordanians agree with this deliberately
provocative statement: “Whenever Iran intervenes, it harms the local Arabs and
does not help the Palestinians.” However, the Jordanian people are evenly
divided on whether the “renewal of the nuclear deal with Iran” will reflect
positively or negatively on the region, with each opinion scoring 47 percent.
Yet Israel is still less popular than Iran among
Jordanians today. Only about 10 percent, both young and old, support “to some
extent” the Abraham Accords. And this same low percentage of Jordanians
supports, a quarter of a century after the kingdom signed an official peace
treaty with Israel, the saying that “people who want to communicate with Israel
on the commercial or sporting levels should be allowed to do so.” It is clear
that the recent consolidation of official Jordanian-Israeli relations has not
been reflected on the popular level.
The sample was selected using standard procedures for
geographic likelihood, so that the resulting statistical margin of error for
the total sample is about 3.5 percent.
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