A plurality of people think Iran got the better end of the nuclear agreement it reached with the United States, and trust in Iran has fallen even further since that deal was struck, according to a new poll.
A strong 41 percent of Americans believe Iran got more of what it wanted in the agreement, while just 14 percent said the U.S. benefited more than Tehran, according to a new Monmouth University poll.
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That split mostly reflects the political beliefs of those who are polled. Roughly two-thirds (67 percent) of self-identified Republicans said Iran got more of what it wanted, while just 23 percent of Democrats said the same. A little more than two in 10 Americans (23 percent) said both the U.S and Iran benefitted mutually from the deal.
Still, the poll shows an overwhelming lack of trust in Iran. More than six in ten people (61 percent) “don’t trust Iran at all” to implement the deal. That’s up from 55 percent in July, and 59 percent at the start of 2015.
Iran agreed in July to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The agreement was reached after months of negotiations between Iran, the U.S., the U.K., China, France, Russia and Germany.
Now, Congress has the option to approve or reject the deal, one of the biggest achievements of the Obama administration. But just 27 percent say lawmakers should approve the deal, compared to 32 percent who say they should reject it. The rest, 41 percent, say they aren’t sure what Congress should do, a sign that arguments for and against the agreement could still sway many.
“The public is not convinced that Congress should reject the plan, but they can’t shake their nagging doubts that Iran has the upper hand here,” Monmouth polling director Patrick Murray said in a press release describing the poll results.
The poll of roughly 1,200 adults was conducted via telephone from July 30-Aug. 2 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
