Majority in US back Iran nuke diplomacy
Published on: Friday, October 07, 2022
By: AFP
Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018 calling it the ‘worst deal ever’ and re-imposed sweeping sanctions.
WASHINGTON: The vast majority of Americans support diplomacy with Iran to constrain its nuclear program, a survey found, amid a stalemate in negotiations to restore a 2015 deal.A wide-ranging annual survey by the Eurasia Group Foundation found that nearly 79 percent of US voters believe the United States “should continue to pursue negotiations to prevent Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon in the near future.”ADVERTISEMENT
Former Republican president Donald Trump pulled out of the accord in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever,” and reimposed sweeping sanctions.
But the survey found that close to 72 percent of Republicans backed nuclear diplomacy with Iran. It did not ask about specific details of the 2015 accord.
President Joe Biden supports a restoration of the accord, but negotiations have repeatedly broken down, with Iran most recently demanding an end to the UN watchdog’s probe of previous suspicious activities.
Political pressure has also built on Biden not to give Iran economic relief amid major protests against the clerical state triggered by the death of a young woman in the custody of morality police.ADVERTISEMENT
The Eurasia Group Foundation polled 2,002 US adults of voting age from September 2-8.
And, an 85-year-old Iranian-American arrested in Tehran more than six years ago who is seeking urgent medical treatment has landed in Abu Dhabi, the State Department said, with the United States pressing for the release of three other citizens.
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Baquer Namazi, a former Unicef official, was detained in February 2016 when he travelled to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.
Namazi “is now in Abu Dhabi after departing Iran for Muscat; he has been reunited with his family and will soon receive urgently needed medical treatment,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Another son, Babak Namazi, said in a statement ahead of the reunion that it was “impossible to articulate and describe sufficiently how I am feeling. I am just so grateful that after so long, I will shortly be able to embrace my father again.”
He thanked Oman and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for their efforts as well as UnicefF and the governments of Qatar, Switzerland, Britain and the United States.
But he called the release “bittersweet,” noting that his brother and two other Americans remained detained.
Namazi needs treatment for a life-threatening blockage in his left carotid artery, which supplies blood to the brain. He underwent a similar operation for the right artery a year ago in Iran after he was not permitted to leave the country.
His son Siamak has been granted furlough to spend time with family but has not been allowed to leave Iran.
Blinken expressed his “gratitude for all of the friends and partners who helped bring about his freedom”.
The survey by the Eurasia Group Foundation also found a rise in the percentage of Americans who would back the use of force to expel Russian forces if they invade a Nato ally in the Baltics.
Nearly 65 percent agreed, up from less than 50 percent in 2021, although support was also high in previous years.
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