Survey: EU, US policymakers would accept nuclear Iran not bomb it

Mar 15, 2011, 15:12 GMT

Brussels - If sanctions failed to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, a majority of policy makers in the European Union and the United States would shy away from launching a military attack against the country, a survey revealed on Tuesday.

The 'Transatlantic Trends: Leaders' survey, by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Italy's Compagnia di San Paolo, is based on anonymous interviews with samples of about 250 high-ranking officials and politicians in Washington and Brussels.

If all non-military options fail in Iran, 51 per cent of respondents in the EU and 50 per cent in the US said they would 'accept (a) nuclear Iran.'

Supporters of a military strike totalled 42 per cent in the US and 32 per cent in the EU.

The poll also revealed that only 16 per cent of EU policymakers were optimistic about the war effort in Afghanistan, against a similarly low 28 per cent in the US.

In another striking result, researchers indicated that only 39 per cent of Brussels respondents thought that Turkey's EU accession is 'very likely' or 'somewhat likely,' against 60 per cent who thought that it was 'not too likely' or 'not likely at all.'

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