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International Herald Tribune


The Arab ‘leadership’


December 10, 2010


Regarding Rami Khouri’s “The sad loss of national dignity” (Views, Dec. 2): The State Department cables, released by WikiLeaks, did not reveal just how dramatically out of step Arab leaders are with their own people.


A public opinion survey from the summer showed that an overwhelming majority of Arabs in the polled countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates) think that Iran has the right to develop nuclear weapons and that a nuclear-armed Iran would be better for the Middle East. Meanwhile, a majority of those people surveyed said that Israel and the U.S. pose the biggest threat to the region. Juxtapose those results with what Arab “leaders” were saying behind closed doors and it raises the question: Who should be more troubled by the leaked cables, Iran or the Arab leaders?


Fariborz S. Fatemi


McLean, Virginia