‘I Respect The Fact’: Trump Thanks Iran, Says It Has Called Off Planned Execution Of Protesters
US President Donald Trump on Friday thanked Iran’s leadership after saying Tehran had cancelled the planned executions of hundreds of protesters detained during a sweeping crackdown.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s remarks came amid ongoing protests in Iran, which have been met with a heavy security response by authorities.
Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Trump said killings linked to Iran’s crackdown on nationwide protests appeared to be subsiding and that he believed there was no plan for large-scale executions of protesters.
Speaking during an Oval Office event, Trump said “very important sources on the other side" had indicated a slowdown in violence and a shift away from mass executions. However, he did not rule out the possibility of US military intervention, amid rising tensions in the Middle East and repeated warnings from Washington.
The protests are widely seen as the most serious domestic challenge faced by Iran’s clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with demonstrators demanding the government’s ouster and clashing with security forces across several cities.
Iranian authorities have said more than 2,000 people have died since the protests erupted on December 28, while rights groups have put the toll at over 3,500. The wave of protests that rocked Iran in recent weeks left thousands dead, according to monitors and rights groups, but discrepencies exist for the toll which according to some estimates could be as high as 20,000.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News the death toll was “hundreds", denying the figures reported by the groups abroad as an “exaggeration" and a “misinformation campaign" to draw US President Donald Trump into making good on a threat to strike Iran if protesters were killed.
Trump also dismissed
“Nobody convinced me — I convinced myself," Trump told reporters later Friday as he left the White House to head to Florida for the weekend.
“They didn’t hang anyone. They cancelled the hangings. That had a big impact."
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