Most Americans disapprove of Trump’s policy on Iran after assassination: Poll

The Reuters/Ipsos polling released on Tuesday found that 53 percent of adults in the US disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, which is an increase of about 9 percentage points from a similar poll that ran in the middle of December.

Some 39 percent of US adults “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s actions in Iran, up 10 points from the December poll.

The poll also found that 71 percent of Americans believe that the US will be at war with Iran within the next few years, up 20 points from May’s poll.

The national opinion poll about the Republican president’s policies against Tehran was largely split along party lines, with disapproval up over the past month among Democrats and independents, while it did not change among Republicans.

The survey was conducted January 6-7, shortly after Trump ordered the strike in Iraq that killed Iran’s most prominent anti-terror commander and escalated tensions in the region.

The US military carried out an airstrike on the direction of Trump at Baghdad’s international airport early on Friday, assassinating Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, as well as eight other companions.

Early on Wednesday, Iran responded to the assassination, striking the American airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq and another in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Iraq’s parliament called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops led by the United States from the Arab country following the American assassination.

Trump said on Wednesday that his administration will impose new sanctions against Iran and will ask the NATO military alliance to get more involved in the Middle East following Iran’s retaliation.

A coalition of progressive advocacy groups in the US have called for massive rallies across the country Thursday to protest Trump’s “military brinksmanship” against Iran and demand immediate de-escalation of tensions with Tehran following the US assassination.

A large group of anti-war activists staged a demonstration in New York City’s Times Square on Wednesday, demanding an end to US military actions in the Middle East.