New Poll: Many Americans Oppose a Defense Pact with Saudi Arabia

WASHINGTON–Just over half of Americans (55%) would oppose an agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that would establish diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel in exchange for the U.S. committing American soldiers to defend Saudi Arabia in the event of a war, according to a Quincy Institute/Harris Poll survey released today.

The survey found that when presented with the prospective details* of the deal the Biden administration is currently pursuing with Saudi Arabia, nearly 3 in 5 Americans (58%) feel this is a bad deal for the U.S. and there is no justification for committing U.S. soldiers to defend Saudi Arabia. There were no significant differences on views of this deal among political affiliation.

* The United States is currently pursuing a deal with Saudi Arabia which would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. As part of the agreement, the U.S. is reportedly considering offering Saudi Arabia a defense pact in which U.S. soldiers would defend them in the event of war, and the U.S. would provide them with more arms sales and nuclear technology, which could be used for the development of nuclear weapons. Some say this deal is worthwhile if it means Saudi Arabia and Israel establish diplomatic relations, and Saudi Arabia draws closer to the U.S. than to China. While others say the U.S. military should not engage in more Middle East wars, and that U.S. soldiers should not be deployed to defend the authoritarian regime in Saudi Arabia.

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Quincy Institute from August 29-31, 2023 among 2,041 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval.  For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact Jessica Rosenblum, [email protected].