The Unknown Candidate: Iran: World Opinion

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Iran: World Opinion

While the Neo-Cons in the Bush administration continue to ratchet up the rhetoric against Iran, thankfully, the majority of the world takes a more realistic view.

A recent poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, "Public Opinion in Iran and America on Key International Issues" proves that the majority of us are still sanely entrenched in the reality-based community, despite attempts by Bushies to frighten us into starting another needless war based on fear-mongering lies.

Key learnings to emerge from the in-depth survey of public opinion follow:

Iranians Want Capacity to Enrich Uranium But Accept NPT Rules Against Developing Nuclear Weapons

Americans Would Allow Limited Enrichment, Provided UN Is Given Full Access

Iranians and Americans Believe Islam and West Can Find Common Ground

Despite Mutual Antagonism, Half of Iranians and Most Americans Favor Direct US-Iran Talks, More Exchanges

Iranians Overwhelmingly Reject Bin Laden

"[The] in-depth survey of public opinion in Iran reveals that most Iranians want their country to have the capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear energy, but a majority also agrees that Iran should comply with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which forbids Iran from developing nuclear weapons. A parallel poll in the United States shows that a majority of Americans are ready to accept a deal allowing Iran to engage in limited enrichment if it also agrees to give UN inspectors full access to ensure Iran is not developing nuclear weapons.

The concurrent surveys of public opinion in Iran and the United States were conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org in partnership with Search for Common Ground. Steven Kull, who directed the surveys, comments, “The polls show that majorities in both countries are deeply suspicious of each other, but nonetheless agree on a wide range of issues.”

Iranians and Americans support international non-proliferation rules as well as a stronger United Nations and reject Osama bin Laden. Majorities or pluralities favor a variety of steps to improve U.S.-Iranian relations and neither side believes conflict between Islam and the West is inevitable.

The poll of the Iranian public was unprecedented in scope. The questionnaire included 134 substantive questions on a wide range of international issues, administered in face-to-face interviews in rural and as well as urban areas. Both the Iranian and U.S. surveys were probability-based national samples of 1,000 respondents or more."

I urge you to read more.

BBC NEWS: View of US's global role 'worse':
The view of the US's role in the world has deteriorated both internationally and domestically, a BBC poll suggests.