Ahmadinejad: World unwilling to impose sanctions
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BBC poll: Support for tough moves against Iran falls
International poll finds support for sanctions, military actions against Iran falls in more than half the countries surveyed despite US intelligence report regarding Iran’s nuclear program
Support for military strikes or sanctions to stop Iran's nuclear programme has fallen in more than half the countries surveyed in an international poll, pollsters said on Tuesday.
The BBC World Service poll comes as big powers have been upping pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but the West suspects is aimed at producing nuclear weapons.
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Although the survey was conducted between the end of October last year and January, most interviews were carried out after the release of a US intelligence report last December which found Tehran had halted work on nuclear weapons in 2003.
The US report took some impetus out of a drive for tougher sanctions against Iran, although the United Nations Security Council did agree on a new sanctions resolution last week.
The poll found support for economic sanctions or a military strike against Iran had fallen in 13 out of 21 countries compared with a similar poll in June 2006.
Confrontation
"It appears that people in many countries are interested in ramping down the confrontation with Iran, while still using UN inspectors to ensure that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons," Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland in the United States, which helped conduct the poll, said in a statement.Support for military action or economic sanctions dropped by 10 points in Australia compared with 2006 (42 percent compared with 52), by nine points in Britain (34 percent from 43), by nine points in Germany (37 percent from 46) and by six points in the United States (60 percent from 66), the poll found.
Only three countries showed an increase in support for military strikes or sanctions -- Israel (where support for tough action rose to 71 percent from 62), South Korea (53 percent compared with 47) and Turkey (33 percent compared with 21).
In the other five countries surveyed, support was broadly similar to the 2006 poll.
Israel has said a nuclear Iran would be a threat to its existence while South Korea's neighbour, North Korea, agreed last year to dismantle its nuclear programme. The rise in support for tough action among Turks was unexpected as the two countries cooperate in areas such as energy.
On average across the 21 countries, 43 percent favoured diplomacy to solve the crisis and 14 percent would apply no pressure at all. Twenty-six percent supported sanctions and eight percent military strikes.
The poll found many people would be prepared to allow Tehran to produce nuclear fuel for electricity, provided it was accompanied by a full programme of UN inspections.
The pollsters surveyed opinion in another 10 countries for the first time. Across all 31 countries surveyed, most respondents opposed the use of economic sanctions or military strikes, the survey said.
More than 32,000 people were interviewed between Oct. 31, 2007 and Jan. 25, 2008. The margin of error per country ranged from plus or minus 2.4 to 4.4 percent.
