Pages on social media circulated a report stating that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa topped the list of the most popular Arab presidents, based on an opinion poll said to have been conducted in a number of Arab countries, in which al-Sharaa received an approval rating of 79%.
The fact-checking team followed up on the report and reviewed the sources linked to the claim, finding that the circulated result is not based on a recent poll. The survey in which Ahmed al-Sharaa's name appeared among the most prominent Arab leaders dates to the end of 2025, while the Syrian poll published in April 2025 showed an approval rating of 81% and did not include any comparison between the popularity of Arab presidents.
Why is this claim misleading?
Out of temporal context: the results of earlier surveys dating to 2025 were presented again as a recent poll measuring the popularity of Arab presidents.
