Iran Focus
London, 4 Nov – The majority of American voters believe that the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers (including the US) needs renegotiation according to an October poll.
The Harris-Harvard poll, conducted shortly after Donald Trump decertified Iran’s compliance with the deal in mid-October, showed that 70% of overall voters said the deal should be renegotiated and approved by Congress.
When broken down by political party, this amounted to 85% of Republicans, 71% of Independents, and 57% of Democrats in favour of renegotiation.
Harvard-Harris co-director Mark Penn said: “Americans see Iran as a bad actor on all fronts and substantial majorities believe this agreement is being violated and never should have gone into effect without a Senate vote.”
This shows that it is not only the politicians who agree that there need to be changes to the current Iran deal, it is the American citizens as well; which will have a severe impact on Trump’s new strategy towards Iran.
It grants the Trump administration more leverage to get tough on the Iranian Regime for their many violations of the nuclear deal (and their many non-nuclear crimes) because he’ll have the people behind him on this issue.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, a political scientist with expert knowledge on Iran, wrote on Arab News: “In fact, if the Trump administration were to succeed in revoking the current deal and negotiating a new one with a more efficient mechanism to monitor the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, his popular vote would go up.”
Indeed, it is now clear that maintaining the nuclear deal as it stands will be a disaster- in terms of reigning in the Regime and poll numbers.
The American people can see beyond Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s pennywise smile to the monster underneath. They know that the Iranian Regime cannot be trusted to abide by an international nuclear agreement with a country it calls “the big Satan”, just as they know that it cannot be trusted not to brutally massacre its citizens or dangerously destabilise the Middle East using its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Indeed, there is much evidence that Iran has violated (or attempted to violate) the terms of the nuclear deal over the past two years. Here is just a few example:
• 32 attempts to buy nuclear technology
• Twice exceeding the limits for heavy water production
• Countless refusals to allow international inspectors access to their nuclear sites
Rafizadeh advised: “[Congress] should pursue the demands of the majority of their constituents, which is renegotiating the nuclear deal. They can pass related legislation, which would strengthen Trump’s position with other members of the P5+1 to make the JCPOA better. If the Iranian regime does not agree to such an initiative, then the Congress has solid grounds to re-impose nuclear-related sanctions.”
The 2,159 registered voters who took part in the poll were 36% Democrat, 32% Republican, 28% Independent and 4% Other Parties. Their responses were weighted according to the national average of each party.
