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Arabs Eye Iran Nuclear Deal with Distrust, Disapproval

(Washington Times) Brennan Weiss - Mideast analysts say most Arabs are worried about the implications of the deal and whether Iran will ramp up its involvement in regional conflicts. "Most people in the Arab world are very skeptical about Iran and mistrustful, especially along sectarian lines. Iran is not popular these days in the Sunni-Arab world," said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institutes in Washington. "I think this is one instance in which public opinion and the opinion of the governments, which often do diverge, are actually fairly closely in sync." "What drives suspicion of the Iranian deal in the Arab streets is Iranian behavior of funding of wars in the region," Joyce Karam, an expert on U.S. policy in the Middle East and a correspondent for Al-Hayat, said Wednesday at the Middle East Institute in Washington. "What is Iran doing fighting Syrians? What is Hizbullah doing in Yemen? What is Iran doing in Saddam [Hussein's] town of Tikrit? These are all questions that are being raised by Arab youth and by average people."
2015-08-07 00:00:00
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