DHAKA: A majority of Europeans and Americans strongly oppose their countries intervening militarily in Syria’s 30-month-old civil war, according to a transatlantic poll published on Wednesday.

‘Transatlantic Trends’, an annual survey of public opinion in the United States and Europe, also found that China’s image in both continents was deteriorating and most Europeans did not want to see Beijing take strong leadership in world affairs.

The survey, by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a US think tank that promotes cooperation between North America and Europe, and the Compagnia di San Paolo, an Italy-based private foundation, measured public opinion in 11 European Union countries, Turkey and the United States.

The poll found 62 percent of Americans and 72 percent of Europeans believed their countries should avoid military intervention in Syria`s civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people.

Only 30 percent of Americans and 22 percent of Europeans felt their countries should intervene in Syria.

In Turkey, which borders Syria, 72 percent said their country should stay out, while 21 percent favoured intervention.

In all regions, the survey found a hardening of attitudes against outside intervention, compared with last year.

Opposition to Western intervention in Syria was reflected in the parliamentary defeat British prime minister David Cameron suffered last month, when he sought approval for a motion that would have authorized military action in principle.

The United States and Russia agreed last Saturday on a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, averting the possibility of any immediate US military action.

BDST: 1849 HRS, SEPT 18, 2013
RoR/GCP