CAIRO, 11 April 2003 — As the cold reality of Baghdad’s occupation by US forces descended on the Arab world Wednesday, there was anger, shock and frustration, along with warnings of new battles ahead.

“Please, America must hear our voices. The American media and people are in state of euphoria right now, but they are not seeing it the way we are seeing it at all,’’ said Diaa Rashwan, a political scientist at Cairo’s Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies.

“The Arab street is very frustrated and to America, I repeat, I repeat, I repeat, the real war hasn’t started yet. We have to be careful with such euphoria. It will only increase the feelings of anger in the Arab world. No Arabs want to welcome an occupying power.’’

Reaction among those interviewed in Cairo reflected mistrust of the United States along with disappointment in the failure of Iraq’s military to respond to the US-led invasion.

“We thought we were doing so well. Arabs were fighting back, it wasn’t going to be cake walk like everyone thought,’’ lamented Emad Mohammed, 28, a building attendant in Cairo. “Where is Saddam now?’’

“I can’t believe what I am seeing. I am so depressed,’’ said Bassem Zein, 36, owner of a cellular phone shop in Beirut who was watching television at work. “It just frustrates me that they enter Baghdad without a fight, this is too much.’’

“I hate it,’’ said Ahmed Samir, the manager of a trading company in Riyadh, as he watched scenes of Iraqis shaking the hands of American soldiers in Baghdad. “It can only mean they hate Saddam more than they hate the Americans.’’

Many of those interviewed said they thought the United States was protecting Israel and equated the televised images of the fall of Baghdad with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“No, no, no,’’ yelled Shaaban Mohamad, watching television at a Cairo bookstore. “If the US really wanted democracy they would have taken out just about every Arab leader we have. This is very suspect. The US just wants to protect Israel and wants the riches in the region.’’

Those interviewed said they saw a different war as they watched images of the US occupation of Baghdad. What some in the United States considered Iraqi liberation was viewed in the Arab world as the culmination of US aggression and hypocrisy.

In coffee houses in Cairo and on college campuses in Beirut, some said the United States manipulated the images they saw — Iraqis cheering the arrival of US forces, looting government buildings and destroying paintings and wall art of Iraq President Saddam Hussein.

“These people dancing in the streets like fools are American spies,’’ said Osama Awad, 26, who squeezed into a packed barbershop in Cairo groaning as he watched televised images of Iraqis in downtown Baghdad attacking a giant statue of Saddam with sledgehammers. “The Americans are telling people to be happy and manipulating them. Meanwhile they will steal their oil.’’

Some broadcasters compared the scene to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But many focused on a US Marine draping an American flag over Saddam’s fallen head, before quickly replacing it with an Iraqi flag.

“The new Iraq will have the flavor and smell of the US,’’ said an anchor on the widely watched Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television.

“What Americans see as a man beating Saddam’s picture with his shoe is an image that means something very different to us,’’ said Hani Shukrallah, managing editor of Al-Ahram Weekly in Cairo. “We see people who are mad at their own leaders who have brought us to this. They may want Saddam out. But in a few weeks they will being doing the same thing to a picture of George Bush.’’

Wednesday night, analysis on television was already focusing on the future of Iraq.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal both called on the US troops to withdraw from Iraq. “Iraqis must take control over of their country as fast as possible,’’ Mubarak told Egypt’s official news agency, MENA.

Repeatedly, analysts said US trust could only be rebuilt when the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is resolved.

“For all people in the Arab world, the Palestinian problem is the only problem they have with the United States,’’ said Turki Al-Hamad, a Saudi political scientist. “If the US succeeds in solving it, then people will change their minds about America.’’