Seaman Kenneth Mathison, an airman, stands watch as an EA-18G Growler from the Electronic Attack Squadron 140 launches from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Mediterranean Sea, April 21, 2019. JEFF SHERMAN/U.S. NAVY
United States President Donald Trump has backed down from earlier threats to attack Iran over violence against protests, as the Islamic Republic confirmed that it won’t be carrying out any executions.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran since the start of the month, vowing to hold the government there accountable if protesters are killed. Reports from Iranian monitoring groups and officials from the country suggest that over 2,000 people, including both protesters and security personnel, have been killed so far.
The surprise shift came amid heightened tensions overnight, with the U.S. evacuating key bases in the Middle East and Iran closing its airspace amid reports suggesting that an attack on the Islamic Republic was imminent.
The de-escalation began with Trump saying late on January 14 that Washington had been informed that the killing of protesters in Iran has ceased and that the Islamic Republic will not be carrying out 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 to Tehran.
Early on January 15, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that there will not be any “hanging today or tomorrow” in the Islamic Republic.
In an interview with U.S. broadcaster Fox News, Araghchi insisted that ten days of peaceful demonstrations over Iran’s economic hardships were followed by three days of violence orchestrated by Israel, and calm had been restored.
“I can tell you, I’m confident that there is no plan for hanging,” Araghchi said.
The Islamic Republic’s judiciary later confirmed that 26-year-old Erfan Soltani, one of more than 18,000 reportedly arrested during the protests, has not been sentenced to death.
The judiciary said that Soltani, currently held in the central penitentiary of Karaj, is being charged with “colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime,” but that the death penalty does not apply to such charges if they are confirmed by a court.
This was followed by a report from the Pakistani newspaper Dawn revealing that Trump informed Tehran that the U.S. does not intend to attack.
Iran’s envoy to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, told the newspaper that he received an indication overnight that Trump had communicated to the Islamic Republic that he did not want war. He said the U.S. president requested that Iran likewise refrain from attacking “US interests” in the region.
Soon after, a senior Saudi official told AFP that Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman led efforts to talk Trump out of an attack on Iran.
The Gulf trio “led a long, frantic, diplomatic last-minute effort to convince President Trump to give Iran a chance to show good intention,” the official said.
“Communication is still underway to consolidate gained trust and current good spirit,” he added.
Later in the morning of January 15, Iran reopened its airspace, and Reuters reported that the security warning level at the U.S. Al Udeid air base in Qatar had been lowered.
U.S. aircraft that were moved out of Al Udeid overnight are gradually returning to the base, one source with knowledge on the situation told the news agency. Two other sources, both diplomats speaking, said that some personnel who were advised to leave the base a day earlier have also been permitted to return.
This de-escalation appears, however, to be more of a maneuver, or even a straight up attempt by Trump to deceive Iran, just as he did before joining the Israeli war on the Islamic Republic last June.
The clearest sign of this is the lack of any reports suggesting that the U.S. and Iran will resume talks. Even if such reports emerge later, it is highly unlikely that Tehran will accept Washington’s strict conditions with regard to its nuclear and missile program, and because of this, it is highly unlikely that an agreement will be reached. To put it simply, the two sides just are too far apart on key issues.
Adding to the suspicion is a report by NBC News, which said that Trump had told his top national security aides that he wants any military action against Iran to deal a swift and decisive blow to the Iranian government while not triggering an extended conflict that lasts for weeks or months.
Citing a U.S. official and people familiar with the matter, the broadcaster said that Trump’s advisers have not yet been able to guarantee that the Islamic Republic would swiftly fall if attacked, and also are citing concerns that they don’t have the military assets in place across the Middle East to defend against an Iranian response.
Therefore, if Trump does decide to attack, he could initially green light more limited strikes on Iran while keeping open the possibility of later escalation, according to the report, which describes the situation as quickly evolving and stresses no decision has been made.
The sources quoted in the report emphasized, however, that Trump is prepared to follow through on his repeated pledge that the US is coming to the aid of anti-government protesters.
“If [Trump] does something, he wants it to be definitive,” one of the people told NBC.
This report appears to be an attempt to reflect an image of hesitation and even fear within the Trump administration, possibly to fool Iran. Multiple similar reports emerged before the 12-day war in June, and more recently before the U.S. carried out an operation in Venezuela to abduct President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Even Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, openly mocked recent reports suggesting that the crisis with Iran was over.
“All the headlines like these are examples of reporting that are beyond inaccurate.
The circumstances around the necessary, decisive action to be taken against the evil Iranian regime have nothing to do with President Trump’s will or determination.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite the opposite. Stay tuned,” he wrote on X.
The decision to attack Iran was likely taken even before the protests. Many reports from November and December even outright suggested that the U.S. and Israel were planning an attack on the Islamic Republic under the pretext of countering its missile program.
And while Trump is now trying to de-escalate, and the media is trying to show him as being hesitant, the U.S. military is already making preparations for an attack on Iran.
The Navy has ordered an additional guided missile destroyer, the USS Roosevelt, into the Middle East, where two other such warships, at least one nuclear attack submarine and the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier are currently deployed.
Reports also suggest that the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group are moving from the South China Sea toward the region.
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erfan soltani, de 26 anos é um jovem bonito porém é um nazista que tem que ser decapitado! morra nazista maldito. todo aquele que trabalha pra israel é nazista. morra desgraçado filho da puta, morra!
success is developing on the southern section west of vasiukivka, where forces have consolidated on the outskirts of the strategically important settlement of nykyforivka. ukrainian units use nykyforivka as a logistical node.
.………………… https://psee.io/8jqu9r
tanto ódio! deve ser um ser revoltado e vil para falar assim de alguém que ia ser executado por protestar.não me lembro de nas décadas recentes algum governo ter morto tantos dos seus próprios cidadãos.imagina você ir protestar contra o bolsonaro e a polícia disparar bala real contra você. seja mais humano! não defenda um regime totalitário,que mata o seu próprio povo. e acha mesmo que esta gente trabalha para israel?tantos milhares de presos, mortos e feridos trabalham para israel?!
a puta que te pariu é que é nazista zuca analfabeto
khomeini will fall.
his body will be dragged throughout the streets of tehran
and he will be stoned publicly.
death to the dictator!
death to khomeini !
down with the funder of jihadi terrorism
you know that khomeini died 1989 ? you must be a “american” 😂 not pleased with shoot women in the face in your trash bin, you probably wants to do the same as with osama bin laden, dig him up, and kill him for the umpten time 😂
hang nuttyyahoo publicly
burn his body
death to the kiddie killers
drive the jooz back to khazaria
free palestine from the river to the sea
maybe russia is also fooling the usa, make sure they dont
only trump knows when he is going to say he’s going to attack some country, only to then say he isn’t. going to attack.
he’s a market manipulator. in this recent case oil price had wild swings. i’m sure his family, friends, market makers, insiders and others with access to the trump inner circle bought the lows and sold the highs. everyone that knows trump knows he likes mafia tactics.
i trick 340 million inferior species americunt peasant monkeys daily
sweden are sending some officers to greenland. look out, so they dont have any daughters at home, who can get murdered by the zio-nazis, like lisa holm ! its satan you avance against.
iran is under attack right now from mossad incited and armed protesters. israeli control of trump will attempt another false deal. expect israeli or us rockets to be shot at any iranian negotiator during talks. how long will iran tolerate this ?
israel is doing every possible treacherous political and media activity to get the us into direct war with iran.
the darpa created internet has become a first choice regime change weapon. the world needs alternative ?
probably, its easiest to blow up the atlantic cables, and hang mengele musk and adolf trump. their stupidity sent out over the world, are already a world government of a kind. its entitys you should not let close to your family, or country.
russia have test sarmat-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. convince me that “nuclear weapon” exist, because their reputation do not stop anybody from attacking russia, or from genocide the jews. bastions are most easily attacked from the inside, thats the lump you put funny hats onto. anybody can be a jew those days. its probably self pity 😂
history of the tiny hats obtaining nuclear capability from the us is well documented. russia has its dead hand system and many new and newer missiles and response systems. a nuclear attack on russia would not succeed without destroying the dead hand. a mossad target for sure !
johnny pollard “lives”… in tel aviv!
no, its not 😂 latest funny thing i see about “nukes” are three idiots play with a ball of plutonium, and a screw driver. radiated to death, but no explosion. and dont forget the idiot impaled to the roof by a control rod, but no explosion. what do you think of a “pacifist”, einstein, that create “nuclear weapon” ? it was one of a endless row of jew rats from hell. use it, or stop rant about it. russia could start by declare newtons laws valid in north america 😂
close hormuz kill every amerikunt and joo puppet in the region
if it ends today, tomorrow, next week… or next year. let me see i$rael wiped off the map first!… than england who made the balfour declaration possible followed by it’s leg breaker uncle $hmuel!…
this is the normal day of a russia allie,hungry and misery as slways was