November 22-2013
A new Gallup poll of Iranians shows that 85 percent believe sanctions have hurt them personally.
The poll, however, did not ask if Iranians blamed the government of President Ahmadi-nejad or the sanctions more for Iran’s economic problems. Most of the candidates in the June presidential elections laid into Ahmadi-nejad as the principle malefactor hobbling the Iranian economy and the new governor of the Central Bank has said publicly that the total lifting of sanctions would not be sufficient to put the economy back on the rails given all its defects.
The Gallup poll was based on 4,507 telephone interviews taken over scattered dates from December 2011 through June 6, 2013, all before the presidential election and some of them from before the major sanctions took hold in mid-2012.
The main question asked, “Have these sanctions personally hurt your livelihood a great deal, hurt it somewhat, or have they not hurt your livelihood at all?”
In response, 50 percent said sanctions had hurt them personally “a great deal,” 35 percent said “somewhat,” 12 percent said “not at all” and the remaining 2 percent said they didn’t know or declined to answer.
Asked who was most responsible for the sanctions, 46 percent said the United States and 13 percent said the Iranian government. Smaller numbers named Israel, Europe, the UN and others.
