President Obama defends the nuclear deal with Iran. Photo: Screenshot.

A new Washington Post-ABC poll released on Monday revealed that a majority of Americans are not confident that the nuclear deal with Iran announced last week will stop the country from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Over 60% of Americans polled said that they “do not support” or “do not support at all” the notion that the deal will stop Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb. Only 6% said that they are “very confident” that the deal will stop Iran and twenty-nine percent said they are somewhat confident.

By contrast, 42% said they were “not at all” confident of the deal’s success, and an additional 22% said they were “not confident.”

But while most Americans did not believe the deal would be effective, the majority still supported the deal with Iran over its nuclear program.

According to the poll, 56% of Americans support the deal, which lifts economic sanctions on condition that Tehran does not pursue atomic weapons. Only 37%, by contrast, oppose the deal.

Israel’s NRG noted that these numbers mark a slight decline in support for a deal from March, when 59% of Americans expressed their support for a negotiated deal with Tehran, and only 31% opposed.

Another poll however, published on Tuesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, found that Americans disapprove of the deal, 48% to 38%. Commenting on the disparity between the studies, the Los Angeles Times said, “Question wording seems likely to be a big part of the answer.”

The Pew survey asked people, “How much, if anything, have you heard about a recent agreement on Iran’s nuclear program between Iran, the United States and other nations?” and then asked, “From what you know, do you approve or disapprove” of the agreement?

According to the report, the Post/ABC poll asked a longer question that gave more of a description of the agreement:

“As you may know, the U.S. and other countries have announced a deal to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran agreeing not to produce nuclear weapons. International inspectors would monitor Iran’s facilities, and if Iran is caught breaking the agreement, economic sanctions would be imposed again. Do you support or oppose this agreement?”

In addition to the approval numbers on the deal itself, the Washington Post-ABC poll also found that the majority of Americans rate President Barack Obama’s handling of Iran negatively, with 52% expressing disapproval of his methods, and only 35% approving.

The poll also revealed that 8 out of 10 Republicans rated Obama negatively, and 56% of Independents also disapproved. By contrast, 59% of Democrats voiced their approval of the president’s Iran policy.

A full third of those who supported the deal nevertheless disapproved of Obama’s performance on the matter.