A majority of Iranians favor sending military personnel to Syria, according to a new poll by the University of Tehran’s Center for Public Opinion Research (UTCPOR) and IranPoll.com, working in conjunction with the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). A majority also support providing help to Syrian President Bashar al Assad. But more Iranians are in favor of protecting Shiite religious sites (80 percent) and fighting ISIS (87 percent) than strengthening Assad (63 percent). “While it is widely assumed that Iran cares more about preserving Bashar Assad’s hold on power than anything else,” said Nancy Gallagher, interim director of CISSM, “this study reveals that Iranians are significantly more concerned about the rise of ISIS than Assad’s hold on power.” More Iranians also favor providing help to Kurdish and Shiite groups fighting ISIS than Assad. The following are key results from the telephone poll of 1,012 Iranians conducted from Dec. 29, 2015 to Jan. 15, 2016.
