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Survey: Which of the P5+ countries are the most trustworthy?

April 3, 2015
Iranwire Staff
3 min read
Graph of results for Persian language site
Graph of results for Persian language site
John Kerry and Javad Zarif talking in Geneva
John Kerry and Javad Zarif talking in Geneva
Negotiations in Geneva
Negotiations in Geneva
Javad Zarif shaking hands
Javad Zarif shaking hands

Iran, the US, and five other world powers last night reached a “framework agreement” over Iran’s nuclear program, or what President Barack Obama referred to as an "historic understanding" that if implemented would make the world a safer place.  In anticipation of these landmark discussions, IranWire asked its readers, both English-language and Persian-language, which country taking part in the negotiations was the most trustworthy via a poll.  

For both the English and Persian sites, Germany came out as being the most "trustworthy," receiving more than 45 percent of the vote in both cases. This may be a higher result than expected but many people view Germany's role in the negotiations to have been positive and constructive, so this may provide an explanation. Then, the US came in second for both polls but interestingly received a higher proportion of the vote - 43 percent compared to 31 percent - for the Persian site. Given the high level of anti-US propaganda that is spewed out by the Iranian regime, one may have expected a more negative response towards the US. However this result may simply be demonstrative of how differently the Iranian people feel towards the US compared to the stance taken by the Iranian authorities.  

The remaining four countries - Russia, China, France and Britain - all received ten percent or less of the vote to varying degrees. In the Persian poll, Russia and China received a combined five percent of the vote, which is noteworthy given that both countries are seen as being Iran's "allies" during the talks. However this result would suggest that the Iranian people do not feel they are trustworthy or reliable negotiators.  

The Persian survey results also demonstrated there was a very low level of trust for Britain and France. Britain received just 1.4 percent of the vote, which is unsurprising given that many Iranians view it as a "greater evil" than the US. Equally, France, which has in many ways adopted a hawkish position towards the talks and often sided with Israel, got just two percent of the vote.

For the English-language poll, the results for these four countries do not waver massively from the results for the Persian site, although there were some noteworthy differences. To begin with, and perhaps most shockingly, Britain did not receive a single vote. Therefore, not a single respondent felt it was the most trustworthy country taking part in the negotiations. Secondly, France received ten percent of the vote, which is considerably higher than what it received on the Persian-language site. 

Finally, China was chosen as being the most trustworthy country by eight percent of voters, while Russia by just three percent. Putin's ongoing campaign in Ukraine has drastically weakened his and Russia's global reputation, which explains Russia's low percentage of the vote in both polls.  

Clearly, many people feel that the majority of countries taking part in the nuclear negotiations, especially Britain, France, Russia and China, are not trustworthy. But with more pressure than ever to finalise a deal by the June 30 deadline, it is crucial that the negotiators prove to be trustworthy afterall and settle a deal, which benefits both Iran, the US and the world at large.

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