A majority of Americans don’t believe that Iran will abide by the terms of a nuclear accord between Tehran, the United States and other Western nations,
according to the results of a Monmouth University poll released Tuesday morning, the same day the Iran deal was announced.
While nearly half — 49 percent — of those polled supported the idea of negotiating with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear capabilities, 55 percent did not believe that Tehran would dismantle its nuclear program or allow independent inspections.
Monmouth conducted the telephone survey over the weekend, prior to Tuesday’s announcement that a final deal had been reached to lift economic sanctions in exchange for international oversight and inspections of Iranian nuclear sites.
"The pact with Iran faces an uncertain future in Congress. A major sticking point with the American public is a sense that Tehran really can’t be trusted to keep its part of the bargain," said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute in New Jersey.
Thirty-five percent of participants said they would trust Iran "a little" to abide by the terms of any agreement, while just 5 percent indicated "a lot" of trust.
The level of trust expressed in this most recent poll are similar to a January Monmouth poll in which 59 percent of those surveyed expressed no trust, 34 percent a little trust and just 4 percent a lot of trust in Iran to comply with the terms.
Political party affiliation appeared to play a large role in respondents' feelings about the negotiations, according to the poll, which found that 61 percent of Democrats thought negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program was a good idea compared with 55 percent of Republicans who thought it was a bad idea.
A plurality of independents — 49 percent — favored negotiations.