WarSclerotic

LONDON: Nearly half of Americans would bomb Iran’s nuclear installations and 20 percent of people living in the Middle East would support such action to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

The findings emerged in a report carried out by respected U.K. pollster YouGov-Cambridge and come amid increased fears that Israel is moving closer to launching a unilateral military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The report also revealed that more than a third of Americans are in favor of the assassination of Iran’s senior political figures.

Tehran insists it is developing nuclear power for civil use, but has refused to allow U.N. observers to thoroughly inspect its nuclear program.

The report said that high percentages of Americans (64 percent), Britons (70 percent), Germans (74 percent) and Danes (76 percent) believe Iran is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons.

Israel has recently sought to downplay mounting concerns it is preparing to launch an attack on Iran.

Last week, the country’s Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon insisted such talk was “speculation which is not entirely connected to reality.”

But earlier this year, Israel defense secretary, Ehud Barak, warned there was a limited window of opportunity to launch an airstrike because Iran would soon move its enrichment activities deep underground beyond the reach of air bombardment.

He said: “Those who say later, may find that later is too late.”

The YouGov-Cambridge report also showed that a quarter of Americans support the assassination of scientists working in Iran’s nuclear program, a policy that is supported by 12 percent of those living in the Middle East.

Four Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in the past two years, in what are widely believed to be operations by the Israeli secret services, or its proxy agents, as part of a covert war to prevent Iran joining the world’s nuclear club.

One of the more surprising results of the report was that one in five Americans, 22 percent, would support a ground invasion of Iran involving U.S. troops, despite the experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Support for the involvement of Arab troops in a ground invasion of Iran was backed by 14 percent of those polled in the Middle East.

When it comes to economic sanctions and cyber-warfare, Middle Eastern opinion differs significantly from both European and American trends, with those in the Middle Eastern much less likely to support taking this kind of action.

Less than half of those polled in the Middle East, 44 percent, supported increased economic sanctions against Iran, compared to 70 percent in the U.S. and U.K., and 74 percent in both Germany and Denmark.

Similarly, just 30 percent of people in the Middle East supported the use of cyber-warfare to undermine Iran’s nuclear research against 56 percent in the U.S., 46 percent in Germany, 44 percent in Denmark and 42 percent in the U.K.

YouGov-Cambridge director Dr Joel Faulkner Rogers said the difference in opinion revealed a reluctance among those with borders close to Iran to support so called “softer measures” that might affect the economic health of the region as a whole.

The poll was carried out between Jan. 27 and Feb. 5.

The report polled 1701 U.K. adults, 1037 German adults, 1003 Danish adults, 999 U.S. adults and 989 Middle Eastern adults.