© Sputnik / Mikhail MetzelFILE PHOTO
Moscow and Beijing are already playing more important roles in the Middle East and North Africa than ten years ago, and in another decade could rival Washington's influence in the region, according to a recent opinion poll.
The
poll was conducted by Al-Monitor in partnership with data analytics firm Premise across
Egypt, Türkiye, Iraq and Tunisia between March 4 and March 22, 2024, and questioned 2,670 respondents in the four states about their views on power dynamics in the region.
When asked which of the three world leaders they viewed "most favorably," some 44.4% chose Russian President Vladimir Putin, followed by Chinese President Xi Jinping with some 33.8%, while only 21.7% said they preferred US President Joe Biden.Putin was seen more favorably across all four states, most of all in Egypt (51.6%). Biden was slightly more popular in Iraq (29.2%) of all states, but still polled third after Putin (35.5%) and Xi (35.3%).
Al-Monitor suggested that Washington's popularity suffered due to its support of Israel's war in Gaza, but noted that a multitude of other factors could be influencing opinions.
The respondents were almost split on whether Washington (30%) or Moscow (28%) could "most successfully mediate political disagreements in the Middle East." However, over 40% agreed that the US was still "best equipped to help resolve the Israel-Hamas war," compared to Russia's 27.9% and China's 13.4%.
Comment: Thailand Medical News provides more details: The Vietnamese government may be urging for calm because it's really not considered to be an urgent issue - that point, however, remains to be seen.
It's worth noting that, ominously, MIT reports that they're working on an mRNA injection; an outbreak detected in the US in cows, and one rancher, is thought to have occurred because they were feeding the excreta of (likely bird flu vaccinated) chickens to the cows; and there's evidence showing that the vaccine program they've been enforcing across the planet has been ineffective, at best: