Survey: Tamim to look for middle-ground exit from Gulf crisis

To maintain his popularity among Qataris, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will try to look for a middle-ground exit from Qatar’s current crisis with the Arab Quartet, suggests the findings of a survey published by Washington Institute for Near East Policy on October 2, 2017. 

The survey was conducted publicly to collect Qataris’ views about the Gulf crisis. The survey shows that 81 percent of Qatari people want a compromise in which all parties make some concessions to each other, including 36 percent who feel strongly about settling the dispute with Arab states. 

The survey reveals unexpected results reflecting a negative Qatari popular attitude towards the Muslim Brotherhood. A margin of 41 to 56 percent disapproves of the Qatari government’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

In sharp contrast, a third problem causing this crisis, Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television channel, received positive reviews from 74 percent of Qataris surveyed. 

Most of the Qataris, who answered the survey, solidly opposed Iran’s policies in the region confirming there should be Arab cooperation against Iran, despite accusations from the Arab countries that Qatar’s royal family is too close to Tehran. 

In the survey, both Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen received negative ratings from 90 percent of Qatar’s adult population. 

However, many respondents of the survey agreed with Turkey’s policy in the Middle East, and ensured that good ties with Turkey are valuable to Qatar. 

This survey was conducted in the form of face-to-face interviews in August 2017, by a leading professional Arab market research firm, with decades of experience in Arab Gulf societies, according to Washington Institute for Near East Policy.