A recent public opinion carried out inside Iran by the non-partisan group World Public Opinion yielded some surprising results, including wide-spread support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the nuclear program he is expected to vigorously defend in a speech at the United Nation's today.

The telephone poll, overseen by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, found that 64 percent of Iranians in Iran have "a lot of confidence" in Ahmadinejad and that 81 percent are either somewhat or very satisfied with "the process by which the authorities are elected in this country."

The "confidence" rating closely tracks the controversial official results from the June 12 presidential election: 63 percent voted for Ahmadinejad.

But when respondents were asked who they voted for, only 55 percent said they'd chosen Ahmandinejad. Only 14 percent said they'd voted for Mousavi (compared to 34 percent in the official election results).

And an unusually high 24 percent refused to answer this poll question.

Ahmadinejad's June reelection was marred by widespread allegations that he had rigged the vote, and led to massive street protests against the outcome. The street action has largely been suppressed by the arrest of hundreds of political prisoners, and there have been persistent allegations of systematic rape and torture of dissidents in government custody.

One well-regarded analysis of the election concluded that there was widespread fraud in favor of Ahmadinejad and it's a point that supporters of his defeated challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, have repeatedly returned to. But the new poll found that assumed widespread disenchantment with Ahmadinejad and the theocratic state led by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may in fact be more narrow.

The poll found 42 percent of Iranians have "a lot of confidence" in the Guardian Council, the group of clerics that oversee the government, and that 29 percent have "some confidence" in them. And 76 percent of respondents said Ayatollah Khamenei was correct to throw his support behind Ahmadinejad after the election.

The poll found that a majority of Iranians support the country's pursuit of nuclear power, with 55 percent of respondents saying they support the development of nuclear power plants and 38 percent supporting the development of "both atomic bombs and nuclear power." On an agreement to stop enriching uranium in an exchange for an end to sanctions, 55 percent said they would oppose such a deal while 31 percent said they would support it. All this despite the expectation of 70 percent of Iranians said that international sanctions will likely be increased if the nuclear program continues.

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