93% of Omanis support Iran’s nuclear deal: PSB Survey

Muscat: Young Omanis are the strongest supporters of Iran’s nuclear deal, among other young Arabs, a major survey of youth across the Middle East has found.
While Arabs are divided on the Iranian nuclear deal and the Syrian conflict, a whopping 93 per cent of Oman’s youth from Muscat and Al Batinah, whose government played a critical role in brokering the deal between Tehran and the international community, have shown support for their government’s involvement in the issue.
Across the region, while 45 per cent of young Arabs supported the Iranian nuclear agreement, 39 per cent opposed it.
Breaking down the numbers, 57 per cent of youth in the Gulf Cooperation Council are in favour of the nuclear deal, while 48 per cent of young Arabs in Levant and Yemen opposed the deal, according to ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2016.
In North Africa, however, only 32 per cent of the sample supported the deal.
The annual survey also showed that opinion is divided among the Arab youth on whether the Syrian conflict is a proxy war, a revolution, or a civil war being fought among Syrian groups.
The devastating war in Syria, together with the decision of the P5+1 countries to lift international sanctions on Tehran, has left Arab youth divided with no clear view of the political or military situations.
Many young Arabs (39 per cent) see the conflict as a proxy war being fought by regional and global powers, while 29 per cent of them see it a revolution against Bashar Al Assad’s regime; 22 per cent called it a civil war among Syrians.
It is worth mentioning that Syria’s five-year conflict has claimed more than 250,000 lives, while causing the world’s largest-ever refugee crisis, and allowing the IS terrorist group to take control of some eastern parts of the country.
The 8th Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey 2016 was conducted by international polling firm, Penn Schoen Berland (PSB), to explore attitudes among Arab youth in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
PSB conducted 3,500 face-to-face interviews between January 11 and February 22, with Arab men and women in the age group of 18 to 24 years. The interviews were completed in Arabic and English.