President Donald Trump said Friday he “convinced himself” to stop military intervention in Iran amid widespread protests throughout the country.
“Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself,” Trump told reporters as he was leaving for Florida.
There was an intense campaign to lobby the president not to intervene from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called Trump to discuss the matter, CNN reported. Trump said part of the reason was that Iran had said it wouldn’t execute protesters.
The Defense Department was preparing to send more U.S. forces to the Middle East, NBC reported Thursday evening.
“They were going to hang over 800 people yesterday, and I greatly respect the fact that they canceled that,” Trump told CNN Friday.
Iran said on Thursday that it never planned to execute those detained in the protests.
Iran’s exiled former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi wants Trump to follow through on military intervention. He said the United States should conduct a “surgical strike” on the regime’s “paramilitary assets” to weaken Iran’s government, he told reporters.
“President Trump did say that if the regime was to hit the Iranian people hard, they will face serious consequences,” said Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran who was forced out in 1979. “The Iranian people have taken him as a man of his word.”
Protests began in late December against the falling currency and rising prices. Human rights groups now say the death toll is at 3,400.
Donald Trump thanks Iran for canceling 800 hangings
President Donald Trump on Friday praised Iran for halting what he described as mass executions of political prisoners, calling the move an unexpected gesture as tensions between Washington and Tehran remain high. Speaking to reporters before departing the White House for a weekend trip to his Mar‑a‑Lago estate in Florida,
Trump claimed that Iran “canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” adding that he “greatly respect[ed] the fact that they canceled.” He reiterated the figure on his social media platform, posting a brief message that simply read, “Thank you!”
Erfan Soltani was expected to be executed
Erfan Soltani, 26, was expected to be the first protester to face execution, according to the State Department and human rights groups.
Iran’s judiciary said that he had not been sentenced to capital punishment. Soltani’s charge of “colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime” did not carry the death penalty but he remained behind bars, state media reported.
The Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said his execution had been “postponed,” citing information from Soltani’s relatives. Amnesty International said the same, citing a source.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also appeared to step back from official calls for rapid justice by telling Fox News that there would not be “any hanging today or tomorrow or whatever.” He said, “I’m confident about that. There is no plan for hanging at all.”
But Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, told state media Thursday that Iran would use all its capabilities to “suppress armed savage terrorists.”
Earlier in the day, Trump said in the Oval Office, “It’s stopped. It’s stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.”
Discussing the response from security forces, Trump said that “people were shooting at them with guns, and they were shooting back.” He added: “And you know, it’s one of those things.”
Trump is ready to follow through on his repeated promises to protesters that the U.S. would intervene militarily to support them, but has told his advisers he would want any action to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House.
They have so far not been able to give him that guarantee, the sources said.
