March 26, 2021
A telephone poll taken of Iranians shows that a majority support the government’s position on the nuclear deal that is, they agree Iran should return to compliance but only if the Americans return first.
And more than 90 percent believed that what the Pasdaran are doing around the world makes Iran much safer from attack by foreigners.
The poll was taken by the Toronto-based Iran Poll on behalf of the University of Maryland. It queried more than 1,000 Iranians between January 26 and February 6.
While only half of respondents said they still hold a favorable view of the JCPOA, 88 percent said they would support returning to compliance if the United States does so first. Only 31 percent supported returning before the United States, and 55 percent supported both sides returning at the same time.
The Majlis late last year voted to reduce international inspectors’ access to its nuclear sites and further exceed the JCPOA’s limits on uranium enrichment if Washington failed to lift sanctions by February 23. More than 70 percent of respondents said they supported the law even if its implementation would make it less likely that sanctions would be lifted.
Biden’s advisers have vowed to “lengthen and strengthen” the JCPOA and insist on new negotiations that would limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional allies.
But poll respondents opposed making additional concessions. Two thirds said they would oppose opening negotiations on missiles and Iran’s regional activities even if such a comprehensive agreement “could include lifting all current sanctions on Iran.”
A similar percentage said they believed the ballistic missile program “decreases the likelihood of other countries attacking Iran,” and larger majorities opposed ending missile testing or limiting their range.
And while Iranian protesters have questioned why their government spends so much blood and treasure on foreign wars, the poll found that nearly 90 percent of respondents believe that the Pasdaran’s activities abroad have made Iran more secure, with 57 percent claiming that these activities made Iran “a lot” more secure.
Fifty-six percent said that pulling out of Iraq and Syria would “make the United States rely on pressures and sanctions to extract more concessions from Iran in other areas.”
In other words, most of those polled believe the regime’s official line that the United States just wants to squeeze Iran and do not believe that America’s real beef with Iran is its ambitions abroad and its development of nuclear technology and missiles.
The poll found solid support for diplomacy with other Middle Eastern powers. A plurality said both that Iran should expand talks with neighboring states and that it should use its influence to push for a diplomatic solution to the war in Yemen. Four of five respondents said that Iranian policy in Iraq should equally benefit Sunni and Shiite Iraqis, while 47 percent said that a deal to restrict all exports of advanced military technology in the Middle East is or could be acceptable.
The survey asked respondents a series of questions about steps the Biden Administration could take that would be “meaningful” in terms of providing the foundation for broader negotiations. Four in five respondents said reversing the Trump Administration’s designation of Iran’s Central Bank as a terrorist organization a move that made it far more difficult for Iranians to obtain goods from abroad would be “very meaningful.”
Seven in ten said “condemn[ing] the assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh as a violation of international law” would fall into the same category.