Washington, Jan 14 (.) US President Donald Trump said that Washington has been informed that the killing of protesters in Iran has ceased and that the Islamic Republic will not proceed with executions as feared.
“We have been notified pretty strongly — but we’ll find out what that all means… We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, and it’s stopped,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office without elaborating on who passed along that message from Tehran.
“We have been informed by very, very important sources on the other side, and they said the killing has stopped and the executions won’t take place,” Trump said.
“There was supposed to be a lot of executions today, and [those] won’t take place,” Trump added. “We’ve been told on good authority, and I hope it’s true, [but] who knows.”
Trump said that footage of protesters in body bags are from previous days, suggesting that the extrajudicial killings have ceased more recently.
Pressed if this means that military strikes are off the table, Trump avoided answering definitively.
“We’re going to watch and see what the process is, but we were given a very good statement by people [who] are aware of what’s going on.”
Iran’s foreign minister had been in touch with Trump’s top aide Steve Witkoff over the weekend.
“There’s no plan for executions… I’ve been told that on good authority,” Trump said. “I’m sure if happens, we’ll all be very upset.”
Rights groups say the crackdown death toll in Iran over the past two-plus weeks of protests is well above the regime’s official count of 2,000.
Italy and Poland have asked their citizens to leave Iran because of the security situation in the country. There are around 600 Italians in Iran, most of them in the Tehran area. Polish citizens should leave Iran immediately, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urges the immediate departure from Iran and advises against all travel to this country,” it said in a post on X.
G7 nations said they are “deeply alarmed at the high level of reported deaths and injuries” in a protest crackdown in Iran and are ready to impose more sanctions if the violence continues. “The members of the G7 remain prepared to impose additional restrictive measures if Iran continues to crack down on protests and dissent in violation of international human rights obligations,” the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the high representative of the European Union, said in a joint statement.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said that Iranian authorities have committed mass unlawful killings “on an unprecedented scale” in their crackdown on protesters.
Amnesty cited verified video evidence and eyewitness reports. “Security forces positioned on the streets and rooftops, including of residential buildings, mosques and police stations, have repeatedly fired rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets, targeting unarmed protesters frequently in their heads and torsos,” the UK-based group said in a statement.
. XC .