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Europe Won’t Side With U.S. on Iran, Say Americans
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Many people in the United States doubt the country’s European allies will endorse the current administration’s fight to prevent Iran from developing nuclear capabilities, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 53 per cent of respondents think U.S. allies in Europe will not offer support on this matter.
After being branded as part of an "axis of evil" by U.S. president George W. Bush in January 2002, Iran has contended that its nuclear program aims to produce energy, not weapons. In June 2005, former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran’s presidential election in a run-off over Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with 61.6 per cent of all cast ballots.
In December 2006 and March 2007, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions against Iran after it failed to stop uranium enrichment—a process needed both to make nuclear weapons and produce electricity.
On Oct. 25, Bush announced a new set of unilateral sanctions against Iran, which include the designations of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction" and of the elite Quds Force as a "supporter of terrorism."
On Oct. 26, Britain and France rushed to push for new sanctions against Iran on behalf of the European Union (EU). Philippe Moreau-Defarges, of the French Institute for International Relations, said the two countries might find it hard to gather enough support for more measures, saying, "It’s not unthinkable that (Europe) could reach symbolic sanctions, but it will be complicated to get much further. There’s just too much division."
Polling Data
How strongly will European allies support the U.S. as it addresses the problem of Iran developing nuclear weapons capability?
|
Very strongly |
10% |
|
Somewhat strongly |
29% |
|
Not very strongly |
41% |
|
Not at all strongly |
12% |
Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 800 likely American voters, conducted on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23, 2007. Margin of error is 4 per cent.