A Monmouth University poll conducted in the days leading up to the Iran nuclear agreement announced Tuesday found that a majority of Americans don't believe Iran will abide by the terms of a deal.
Asked how much they trusted Iran to abide by the terms of a potential deal limiting its nuclear program, 55 percent of respondents answered "not at all," while 35 percent said they trusted Iran "a little." Only 5 percent had "a lot" of trust that the country would stick to the terms of an agreement.
A plurality of Americans, however, stated support for the ongoing negotiations: Forty-nine percent said they thought the talks were a good idea, while 36 percent thought they were a bad idea.
Sixty-one percent of respondents who identified as Democrats said they favored negotiations for a deal, compared to 38 percent of those who identified as Republicans.
Iran and six world powers announced on Tuesday that they had finally reached a landmark agreement that aims to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for easing sanctions. President Barack Obama argued in a speech hailing the agreement that the deal is in the best interests of the U.S. and is based on verification, not trust.
Previous polls have found evidence of distrust of Iran when it comes to a potential nuclear deal. Fifty-five percent of Americans said the U.S. "can't trust anything" Iran says on the issue of nuclear weapons, according to a March Fox News poll, while twenty-eight percent said the U.S can trust only "a little" of what Iran says. An April poll conducted by NBC News found that 68 percent of respondents believed Iran was "not too likely" or "not at all likely" to follow through on an agreement.
When it comes to the level of public approval of the negotiations with Iran, though, past polls have shown some inconsistency. An analysis by HuffPost Pollster found that the variation occurred primarily because few people paid close attention to the negotiations, meaning their opinions were heavily influenced by the wording of the question.
Going forward, Congress will now have 60 days to approve or reject the deal. Obama has vowed to veto any legislation that stands in the way of implementing the agreement.
Monmouth University surveyed 1,001 American adults via live interviews over landline and cell phone between July 9 and 12.