{"id":15497,"date":"2013-08-27T15:26:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T20:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/even-before-chemical-weapons-furor-assad-had-little-support-among-publics-in-the-region\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:30:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:30:03","slug":"even-before-chemical-weapons-furor-assad-had-little-support-among-publics-in-the-region","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2013\/08\/27\/even-before-chemical-weapons-furor-assad-had-little-support-among-publics-in-the-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Even before chemical weapons furor, Assad had little support among publics in the region"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FT_Syria_Assad\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

As the U.S., its European allies and various Arab states in the Middle East consider military action against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad for his alleged use of chemical weapons<\/a>, Assad doesn’t have many friends among neighbors in the region.<\/p>\n\n

There is little public backing for the Syrian president from the mostly Sunni Arab publics in the Middle East, according to a Pew Research Center survey<\/a> conducted before the recent allegations of chemical weapons use. Only the Shia in Lebanon (91%) had a favorable view of the Syrian leader. (Assad comes from a family of Alawites, a branch of Shia Islam<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n

Roughly nine-in-ten Lebanese Sunnis (92%), Israelis (91%) and Jordanians (90%) have a negative view of the Syrian leader, as do eight-in-ten Egyptians (81%) and Tunisians (81%) and seven-in-ten Turks (72%).<\/p>\n\n

Even the Christians in Lebanon (63%) oppose Assad, despite the relative protection the Assad family has given the Christian community in Syria over the years.<\/p>\n\n

The intensification of the conflict in Syria in the last year has not altered regional views of Assad. He was not liked in 2012 and he is not liked today.<\/p>\n\n

Nor is Assad popular in Russia, a long time ally<\/a> of the Syrian regime and an opponent of outside intervention in the Syrian civil war. Just 27% of the Russian public support the Assad government. Most Russians (52%) have no opinion on the issue.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was accused of using chemical weapons, he was widely unpopular with publics in neighboring countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_api_pending":"1713063944","relatedPosts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[326,98,428],"bylines":[988],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[514,510],"research-teams":[],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-15497","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-news-media-trends","category-war-international-conflict-1","category-war-international-conflict-2","bylines-bruce-stokes","formats-short-read","regions-countries-international","regions-countries-middle-east-north-africa"],"label":"Short 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