Middle East reaction mixed on US elections

In a disillusioned Middle East where calls for a change - any change - in the US leadership resonated throughout the run-up to the election, Kuwait is clearly Bush country.

For months, Arabs have expressed anger and worry that Mr Bush made the Middle East more unstable with his invasion of Iraq, and he is widely perceived as an unabashed supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. But in Kuwait, he is first and foremost the son of George HW Bush, the president who liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf War.

“For us, it will be Bush, Bush and Bush, even if the grandson of Bush runs one day,” Yousef al-Jassem, 55, told The Associated Press at a Tuesday night election party hosted by the US Embassy.

Dr Abdullah al-Shayeji, a lecturer at Kuwait University, said Mr Kerry failed to offer voters a “convincing alternative” to Mr Bush’s war on terror.

In Cairo around a dozen students at the American University in Cairo watched election returns, resigning themselves to the prospect of a Bush victory.

“He’ll be a lot more powerful now,” said Ahmed Khattab, a 20-year-old biology student. “He’ll be a lot more bold in his actions in the Middle East. He’ll put a lot more pressure on Iran, on Syria. He’s ignored the peace process - he has other things on his mind, and I think that will continue.”

Hana Sobieh, a 16-year-old computer science freshman, said she did not consider Mr Kerry to be any better for the Middle East on issues concerning her, particularly the Palestinian situation and Iraq. “But he is someone new. Bush is bad. We want someone less bad.”

Most Egyptian newspapers played the elections story more prominently than the death of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, ruler of the United Arab Emirates for more than 30 years.

Arab satellite networks kept a close watch through the night a sign of the great importance attached to the election in the Middle East.

Iraq’s deputy prime minister, Barham Saleh, said on Al-Arabiya television that general policy themes will probably remain the same regardless of a Bush or Kerry victory.

“Supporting Iraq and the Iraqi people against terrorism and extremism is fixed in the politics of the United States because it is demanded by the Unites States’ security and political interest,” he said, adding that only the style and details may differ.