Published On 7/8/2026
In his study “Attitudes of Arab Public Opinion in the Diaspora towards the American/Israeli War on Iran,” published by the Al Jazeera Center for Studies, researcher Abdullah Abdul Moumen Al-Tamimi analyzes the positions of Arab communities residing abroad regarding the war, and the factors that contributed to shaping their attitudes, through a field study that aimed to measure the level of follow-up, sources of information, evaluate the causes of the war, its repercussions, official and media positions, and expected scenarios for the future of the conflict.
The study believes that the American/Israeli war on Iran represents one of the most influential crises in the Middle East in recent years, not only because of its military dimensions, but also because of the political, economic, and security repercussions it has that extend to the regional and international system. In light of this scene, the Arab diaspora communities emerge as a segment that lives in multiple media and cultural environments and receives different narratives about the war, making their trends an important indicator for understanding the nature of Arab public opinion toward this conflict.
Read also
list of 2 itemsend of list
The study explains that its goal is to explore the attitudes of Arabs residing abroad, monitor their level of follow-up to the war, analyze their awareness of its causes, their perceptions of its repercussions, and their assessment of official Arab and media positions, in addition to anticipating their vision for the future of the conflict. The researcher relied on a survey study that included 135 respondents residing in a number of countries, employing theories of agenda setting, media framing, public opinion making, and reliance on the media to interpret the results.
First: methodology and sample characteristics
The researcher reviews the methodological foundations of the study, explaining that it adopted the descriptive survey method, and used the questionnaire as a main tool for collecting data. The sample included Arabs residing in a number of countries, more than half of whom resided in Türkiye, while the rest of the sample was distributed among Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia, and other countries.
The study shows that the sample is dominated by males, and that the majority of participants are over forty years old, and that about 95% of them hold university or postgraduate qualifications, which reflects, in the researcher’s estimation, that the results of the study largely express the trends of an educated Arab segment, which follows political and strategic developments with interest, and has the ability to analyze their repercussions. The data also showed that the majority of participants belong to groups involved in the labor market, which explains their interest in the economic and political repercussions of the war.
Second: Arab public opinion trends towards the war
The study reveals a significant increase in the level of interest of Arabs in the diaspora in the war. Most participants follow its news on a daily or almost daily basis, while social media came at the forefront of sources of information, followed by television channels, then analysts and experts, while reliance on official sources and electronic newspapers declined.
The study shows that more than half of the participants see the war as unbalanced, while about a third of them describe it as balanced, while a limited percentage remains unable to form a clear position. At the level of personal attitudes, the category of neutrals came first, followed by the category of opponents of the war, while the percentage of supporters was the lowest, which reflects a general tendency toward caution or rejection of military escalation, and a preference for political and diplomatic solutions.
The study believes that these results confirm the absence of a unified Arab position in the diaspora, but at the same time they reveal a general trend that prefers to avoid war, and expresses widespread fears about its humanitarian, economic, and security repercussions.
Third: The public’s awareness of the repercussions of the war and its future
The study shows that the majority of participants view the war as a turning point in the regional balance of power, and expect it to lead to reshaping the map of influence in the Middle East, with continued instability, weakening of Iran, and increased foreign interference.
The results also reveal that the majority of respondents expect the war to have major negative effects on the Arab countries, and that its most prominent repercussions will be rising energy prices, economic decline, expanding foreign interventions, and security unrest, while the repercussions of asylum and displacement came in at a later stage compared to the economic and strategic repercussions.
Regarding the future of the conflict, the study indicates that participants are divided between those who believe that the war will remain under control, and those who expect it to turn into a broader regional confrontation, with a large percentage expressing a state of uncertainty. The largest percentage also believed that the war would continue for a long time, or that the international community would intervene to end it, while they ruled out the possibility of reaching a quick settlement. The study believes that these results reflect an Arab awareness that the crisis has become part of a long geopolitical conflict, in which international and regional interests overlap.
Fourth: Evaluation of Arab governments, media, and vision of the future
The study reviews the participants’ evaluation of the official Arab positions, indicating that a significant percentage believed that the Arab governments dealt with the war appropriately, while another percentage considered that their positions lacked clarity or were not at the required level. As for the position that the Arab countries should adopt, the majority preferred the option of neutrality or diplomatic mediation, while the support of any of the parties to the war was only received by a very limited percentage.
In evaluating the Arab media, the study reveals the absence of a clear consensus. The largest number of participants believed that the media coverage was insufficient, while others described it as objective, and a third group considered it biased or misleading, which reflects the continuing crisis of confidence in media performance during major crises. The results also showed that the majority of participants do not give complete confidence to the information circulating about the war, but rather deal with it with caution, relying on more than one source to verify the news.
The study devotes an important aspect to analyzing the participants’ perceptions of the causes of the war, indicating that a large segment of them believes that the Zionist project and the pursuit of regional hegemony represent the primary driver of the conflict, while others focused on the Iranian project, its nuclear program, the competition for influence in the region, in addition to the conflict between the major powers, and the importance of oil and energy corridors, most notably the Strait of Hormuz.
In light of this, the participants put forward a set of recommendations, most notably adopting effective Arab neutrality, avoiding involvement in war, enhancing political mediation, building new regional alliances, strengthening institutions for joint Arab and Islamic action, developing self-deterrence capabilities, achieving greater economic sufficiency, securing supply chains, and fortifying the home front of Arab countries.
Conclusion
The study concludes that Arab public opinion in the diaspora treats the American/Israeli war on Iran with a high degree of interest, but it tends to be more cautious than biased, and tends to prefer political and diplomatic solutions over military confrontation. The results also reveal a broad awareness of the economic and security risks resulting from the continuation of the war, with the expectation that it will continue or that the international community will intervene to end it. They confirm that the majority of Arabs in the diaspora prefer that Arab countries distance themselves from the conflict, focus on protecting their national security, enhancing their internal stability, and building more independent policies in the face of regional and international transformations.
To view the full study (click here)
