By AMY HARDER
Fresh on the heels of President Obama's exclusive interview with Arab TV network Al Arabiya, Gallup released a survey this afternoon showing respondents in the Middle East and North Africa giving U.S. leadership a dismal 15 percent approval rating.
In his interview on Arab TV, Obama emphasized the importance of reaching out to the Muslim world, and he has taken a series of actions toward this end -- addressing Muslims in his inaugural speech, issuing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and appointing George Mitchell and Richard Holbrooke as special envoys to the Middle East.
Former Rep. Vin Weber, R-Minn., who recently contributed to a U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project report advising the new administration on how to improve relationships in the region, praised Obama for his appearance on Al Arabiya and dismissed Gallup's findings as premature.
"There are decades and decades of skepticism of the West ingrained in psyches in people of the Arab world, and that's not going to change on a dime simply because we have a new president," Weber said. "What we have is an opening, an opportunity to change the minds of people. And I think the president has taken the right first steps, and if they see that we're persistent and consistent, I think that we can slowly, over time, change minds."
Gallup pollsters also found that respondents in the region indicated their rating of the U.S. would improve if the country pulled out of Iraq. Weber, for his part, acknowledged that "the invasion itself resonates very badly" with Muslims, but insisted that withdrawing "precipitously" could lead to civil war, even regional war.
Also contributing to the U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project report was former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who recently spoke with NationalJournal.com about this and other foreign policy challenges Obama will face. Check Lost In Transition later this week for our full interview with Weber.
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