Wednesday 9 October 2013

The Iranian Views of America

Iran is one of America's fiercest enemies and has been since 1979 after the Islamic revolution and the Iranian hostage crisis. They were once close allies but relations between the two nations are now so bad neither one even has an embassy in each others countries and since 1995 the United States has had an embargo on trade with Iran, which has crippled Irans economy. A 2013 poll showed that just 5% of Americans view Iranian influence positively, with 87% expressing a negative view, the most unfavourable perception of Iran in the world. Recently Iran has been developing nuclear power and America has been increasingly wary of this trying to block their nuclear efforts through the UN.

The first article I have linked to is an article from NPR (an American radio station) that talks to the Director of a poll that in 2008 asked over 700 Iranians what their opinion of America was. One of the benefits of this poll is that the results can be compared to an earlier poll to see if opinion is getting worse or better. Some results were more surprising than others for example the majority of people have an unfavourable view of America. Other results were more surprising for example Iranians believe that America is in control of Al Jazeera and even Al-Qaeda.

The second article is a recent article in the Tehran Times talking about how Iran's new President is a possible route to a new relationship with America and uses the recent phone call between Presidents Obama and Rouhani as a step forward in the two nations relationship, with President Rouhani calling for the 'easing of tensions' with the outside world. However this links to my third article which is an article by CBS news that talks about how despite the new Iranian leader the people of Iran still harbour much resentment towards America. This article uses the example of Iranians chanting 'death to America' and the burning of the American flag to support this opinion.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89683583

http://tehrantimes.com/component/content/article/111239-rouhani-obama-phone-call-searching-for-a-new-way-forward

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57606151/iranians-chant-death-to-america-despite-presidents-chat-with-obama/

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