Gallup: Less than 50% of Iranians trust their country's government
The results of the latest Gallup poll show that in the midst of the economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, which has turned Iran into one of the centers of the disease's spread, people's trust in the country's "government" has fallen below fifty percent.
A general look at past Gallup polls suggests that the Iranian people have never been so distrustful of the Islamic Republic's governance over the years.
According to a report published on the website of this global institution, at least four out of ten Iranian citizens believe that their living standards and livelihoods have declined compared to the past and are getting worse day by day.
On the other hand, only six percent of Iranians agree with the policies of the United States government.
The most recent Gallup Global Poll was conducted in August 2020 (summer 2020), and based on this, only 47% of Iranians said they trust their country's government.
This is despite the fact that fifty percent of Iranians say they have lost trust in the government.
The institute's polls over the past decade show that since 2016, with the coming to power of Donald Trump's administration and the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement known as the "JCPOA", which led to the imposition of heavy sanctions against Tehran, the Iranian people's trust in their country's government has been declining.
According to Gallup, before that, between 2012 and 2016, approximately seven out of ten Iranians had confidence in the country's government.
On the other hand, the Gallup report says that despite Iranians’ significant decline in trust in the government, public opinion of the US government’s leadership has changed even more. In 2017, 19 percent of Iranians said they approved of the performance of US leaders, while 42 percent disapproved and 38 percent said they had no opinion.
In 2018, the level of "dissatisfaction" and opposition of the Iranian people to the policies of American leaders reached 85%. The number of opponents increased this time with the participation of people who had not expressed their opinion in the previous survey.
This change shows that many Iranians did not have a specific position on the Donald Trump administration in the first year of its inception, until the US abandoned the nuclear deal, and as a result, there was a significant shift in the views of the Iranian people towards the positions of US leaders.
Comparing the results of surveys over the years clearly shows how the "maximum pressure" strategy and the return of heavy sanctions against the Iranian government in 2018 have affected people's optimism about the country's improving economic conditions.
Before that, Hassan Rouhani's government had tried to bring Iran out of isolation and into the global economy.
Donald Trump said on Friday, November 23, that in the last three years, his administration's approach has caused "Iran to turn from a rich country to a poor country," and that the country's gross domestic product has decreased by 27 percent.
The US President had previously said that the maximum pressure strategy against Iran has severely damaged the country's economy, and for this reason, as soon as he wins the November 3 election, Iran will be the first country to contact him for an agreement.
Source: Radio Farda
