Americans, Iranians agree on some issues

People in Iran and the United States are suspicious of and unfriendly toward one another but not that far apart on nuclear policy, combating terrorism and other major issues, polling in the two countries found.

The U.S. government considers Iran, an Islamic republic, to be the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. But the polls, released Wednesday, found Iranians worried about Islamic terrorism: Almost six in 10 Iranians consider the threat of terror from extremist Islam important or critical. More than nine of 10 Americans feel that way.

Overwhelming majorities of both Americans and Iranians hold very unfavorable opinions of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, according to the polls. The surveys were conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.com in partnership with the conflict-avoidance group Search for Common Ground.

Iran is involved in a dispute with the West over its insistence on enriching nuclear materials despite its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty not to do that without inspections. The United States suspects Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is for generating electricity.

The polling found most Iranians support their government's position but also think Iran should obey the nuclear treaty; Americans, too, think enrichment is OK, but only with thorough U.N. inspections.

Majorities in both countries think the United Nations and its International Atomic Energy Agency influence the world positively. More than half the Iranians and nine of 10 Americans said the United Nations should work actively to discourage countries from obtaining nuclear arms, according to the polls.

Neither a majority of Americans nor Iranians think that violent conflict between Islam and the West is inevitable, although almost half the Americans feel it is inevitable. Only one Iranian in four feels that way.

Half of Americans said they think of themselves principally as citizens of the United States. For the Iranians, four out of five said their conception of themselves is foremost as a Muslim.

Steven Kull, who directed the surveys, said those responses might not be as significant as they appear. He noted that since 1979, when a general uprising ended the reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Iran has been a sectarian state, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Questions included some general queries about life in Iran and the Iranian system. To a question of the importance of living in a country "governed by representatives elected by the people," 68 percent of Iranians and 74 percent of Americans said that was "absolutely important."

Queried about the other country, however, both groups were quite negative. Three out of four Iranians held "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" opinions of the United States; 65 percent were "very unfavorable." "The American people" fared somewhat better, but still half the respondents found Americans to be somewhat or very unfavorable.

For their part, almost six in 10 Americans found the Iranians somewhat or very unfavorable; almost eight in 10 said that about the current Iranian government.

While a list of international personalities to be rated included President Bush _ 86 percent of Iranians and 34 percent of Americans held "very unfavorable" opinions of him _ it did not include Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.

Kull said the omission of Ahmedinejad and other sensitive subjects was intentional, to protect his Iranian colleagues. "There were no rules, but they knew they would get in trouble" had such questions been asked, Kull said.

The American poll was taken in two periods, 1,326 people in the period Nov. 21-29 and 1,004 people in the period Dec. 6-11, 2006. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.

In the Iranian segment, 1,000 people were surveyed from Oct. 31 through Dec. 6, with a margin of error at 3 percentage points.

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On the Net:

World Public Opinion survey:

http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/pdf/jan07/Iran_Jan07_rpt.pdf