A new University of Maryland poll found that a majority of Iranians continued to support sending their own military personnel to Syria. Half of Iranians said their country should increase support for Bashar al Assad’s government. About two thirds of respondents said Iran should seek to increase the role it plays in the region.
Iranians indicated mixed views of Turkey, China and Russia. They had largely positive views of Iraq, the Lebanese militia and political party Hezbollah, Syria and Germany. They had overwhelmingly negative views of ISIS and Saudi Arabia.
The telephone poll of 1,007 Iranians was conducted June 17–27, 2016, for Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland by IranPoll.com. The following is a rundown of key results on Iranian views of other countries and regional conflicts.
Please indicate to what degree you have a favorable or an unfavorable view of each?
ISIS
| January 2016 | June 2016 | |
| Very favorable | 0.3% | .2% |
| Somewhat favorable | 0.2 | .4 |
| Somewhat unfavorable | 0.8 | 1.2 |
| Very unfavorable | 97.8 | 97.6 |
| DK/NA | .9 | .6 |
Saudi Arabia
| May 2015 | January 2016 | June 2016 | |
| Very favorable | 8.3% | 2.7% | 2.1% |
| Somewhat favorable | 18.6 | 7.5 | 7.2 |
| Somewhat unfavorable | 12.2 | 9.0 | 8.7 |
| Very unfavorable | 59.1 | 79.4 | 81.3 |
| DK/NA | 1.8 | 1.4 | .6 |
In your opinion should Iran increase its support for the government of Bashar Assad in Syria, decrease it, or maintain it at the current level?
| March 2016 | June 2016 | |
| Increase it | 51.3% | 49.6% |
| Decrease it | 13.6 | 11.2 |
| Maintain it at the current level | 23.5 | 30.5 |
| Other/depends | 1.3 | .7 |
| DK/NA | 10.2 | 8.0 |
Do you think Iran should or should not send military personnel to Syria to help the government of Bashar Assad?
| June 2016 | |
| Strongly approve | 44.4% |
| Somewhat approve | 39.3 |
| Somehwat disapprove | 7.2 |
| Strongly disapprove | 4.8 |
| DK/NA | 4.3 |
Do you mostly approve or mostly disapprove of Iran participating in international negotiations over the future of Syria?
| January 2016 | March 2016 | June 2016 | |
| Mostly approve | 80.4% | 81.7% | 81.0% |
| Mostly disapprove | 13.3 | 13.9 | 11.0 |
| DK/NA | 6.2 | 4.4 | 7.9 |
Do you think Iran should or should not try to use its influence with key players in Syria to help secure a lasting ceasefire between the government of Bashar Assad and members of the Syrian opposition that are not affiliated with terrorist groups like ISIS?
| Iran should try | 62.8% |
| Iran should NOT try | 16.9 |
| No such groups/opposition members exists | 11.1 |
| DK/NA | 9.2 |
Click here for Poll 1: Iranian Views on Nuclear Deal
Click here for Poll 2: Iranian Views of the US
Click here for Poll 4: Domestic Politics and Issues
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