"... A third of Saudis would approve "an American or Israeli strike against Iran"?

Noting that the flawed nature of the poll in a census-less land like the KSA, it is hard to determine the sise of "Urban" Saudia vis-a-vis the KSA as a whole ... Anyhow, we should remember that thus spoke the wizards at WINEP/ here

"... A solid majority (57 percent) of urban Saudis approved of "stronger sanctions against Iran" if it "does not accept new limits on its nuclear program," ....

More surprisingly, a third of urban Saudis said that they would approve "an American military strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities" if Tehran refuses to restrict its activities in this field. But a majority disagreed: one-third were "somewhat" opposed to such action, and the remaining third were "strongly" opposed.....

Asked about an Israeli military strike against Iran, one-quarter of urban Saudis said that they would support it at least "to some extent." Interestingly, that figure is three times larger than the number of respondents who said that they would accept Israel "as a Jewish state," even "under the right conditions" -- a mere 9 percent of urban Saudis took that position. But regional differences are relatively significant here: in Jeddah, hypothetical acceptance of a Jewish state was 17 percent, compared to barely 4 percent in Riyadh or Dammam/al-Khobar.

However, and to the chagrin of WINEP,

In response to an open-ended question about the greatest external threats to their country, many of the Saudis cited issues of terrorism or religious extremism. In fact, these issues led the list by a large margin, with each garnering around 20 percent of total first mentions. Issues related to Iran and Israel lagged far behind, barely registering in double digits even when first and second mentions were combined. On a related question, more than half (54 percent) of urban Saudis said that "religious extremism is a serious problem" in their country, including 28 percent who strongly believe this. ......

Comparisons with Egypt

The poll data show that Egyptians are significantly less likely than urban Saudis to favor tough action against Iran. For example, the proportion of Egyptians who support new sanctions barely tops 40 percent and has declined moderately since June 2009, in contrast to the majority support in Saudi Arabia. Similarly, just one-quarter of Egyptians, compared to a third of Saudis, would support U.S. military action, and even fewer would approve an Israeli strike (17 percent).

At the same time, the Egyptian respondents were somewhat more likely to say that they could accept Israel as a Jewish state, although this remained a distinctly minority opinion (26 percent) ...

.................. these findings clearly suggest that the United States can point to significant Saudi popular support for stiffer sanctions against Iran, and perhaps even for the threat of military action, albeit to a lesser degree. In addition, Saudi popular sympathy for al-Qaeda is quite low, indicating a largely favorable climate for government counterterrorism efforts aimed at the organization.

On other issues, however, public opinion could pose considerable obstacles to proposed Saudi or U.S.-backed initiatives. For example, a large minority of urban Saudis -- nearly 40 percent overall -- believe that it is an Islamic duty to aid armed mujahedin around the world. And only a very small minority seem receptive to any proposals for "normalization" with Israel, given the overwhelming majority opposition to accepting the country as a Jewish state under any circumstances.