Massive protests that rocked Iran for over two weeks appear to have slowed significantly, as President Donald Trump partially backs off his threats to intervene and stop the widespread killing and execution of protesters.
“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 posted Friday on Truth Social, in an abrupt change of tone from threats of possible military action days before.
On Tuesday, Trump had called on Iranians to keep protesting and “take over institutions,” saying that “help is on its way.”
Iran’s judiciary said Thursday that a man feared to be facing the first execution would not face the death penalty, but the White House has not provided a source for the claim that 800 have been spared.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency said Saturday that street unrest has largely subsided, while Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said key agitators had been detained.
In a public address, Khamenei denounced Trump’s earlier remarks about the protests. “The president of the United States himself encouraged the agitators,” he said.
“We consider the U.S. president a criminal, both for the casualties, for the damages, and for the slander directed at the Iranian nation,” he added.
Khamenei said “the Iranian nation has defeated America” and security forces have rounded up key leaders behind the unrest, adding: “We have no intention of leading the country into war, but we will not let domestic criminals go [unpunished].”
The leader also acknowledged for the first time that “thousands” of people had died in the unrest. Previously, Iranian officials said hundreds had been killed.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told Politico in an interview on Saturday, after learning of Khamenei’s remarks.
“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,” he said. “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”
The brutal crackdown has left at least 3,090 dead, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a U.S.-based Iranian activist group that relies on supporters inside Iran to track the protests and monitor deaths. The organization also reported 22,123 arrests.
“The Iranian regime has a bloody track record, but as the toll soars there may well be no precedent to the speed and ferocity with which it’s acted this time,” Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told NBC News in a text message responding to questions.
The vast majority of the killings took place after the internet was cut on Jan. 8, human rights activists and observers say. It has yet to be restored, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks, leaving most Iranians cut off from the outside world.
Mobile phone texting services, which had also been cut, were at least partially restored, the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported on Friday.
The demonstrations were sparked by economic grievances as the rial currency crashed and inflation soared, morphing into one of the biggest challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in the theocracy’s 47-year history, as thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the end of the ruling clergy.
Despite the judiciary appearing to back away from executions, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric, demanded the execution of protesters in a fiery Friday prayer sermon in Tehran.
“These terrorists should be hanged at the very scene of their crimes,” he said, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
A U.S. official told NBC News on Wednesday that the Defense Department was preparing to send additional U.S. forces and assets to the Middle East, while the U.S. began evacuating key personnel from its largest military base in the region ahead of a possible strike.
The international community must act “to end further massacres of protesters in Iran,” Amnesty International said Friday in a post on X, calling for special sessions of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Security Council to be convened to prevent violence.
For now, it appears that the mass killings have deterred protesters, but the regime will likely face future unrest because it has not addressed the root causes of the grievances, including the dismal economy, water shortages, electricity blackouts and restrictions on social freedoms, analysts say.
“They’ve already won the battle against their people, but I think ultimately they’re going to lose the war,” Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University, said in a telephone interview.
Khamenei acknowledged Saturday that “the economic situation is not good, and people’s livelihoods are truly facing difficulties,” adding: “Government officials must work twice as hard as usual and act with greater seriousness and determination.”
