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Associated Press

US President Donald Trump took the unusual step on Friday of thanking the Iranian government for not following through on executions of what he said was meant to be hundreds of political prisoners.
“Iran cancelled the hanging of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters while leaving the White House to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
He added, “and I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled”.
The Republican president also suggested on his social media site that more than 800 people had been set to be executed in Iran, but he said they now would not be.
“Thank you!” Trump posted.
Those sentiments come after Trump spent days suggesting that the US might strike Iran militarily if its government triggered mass killings during widespread protests that swept that country but have now quietened.


The death toll from those demonstrations continues to rise, activists say. Still, Trump seemed to hint that the prospects for US military action were fading since Iran had held off on the executions.
The president’s rosy assessment did not appear to match the more complicated situation in Iran. Still, his pronouncements seemed to be more evidence of him backing away from his early comments that suggested a US attack on that country might be imminent.
Trump had previously posted of Iran and the protesters there, “Help is on the way.” But asked if that was still the case on Friday, he replied: “Well, we’re going to see.”
Questioned specifically if Arab and Israeli officials might have convinced him to back down on seeming suggestions that he would strike Iran, Trump said, “Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself.”
“You had yesterday scheduled over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone,” he said. “They cancelled the hangings. That had a big impact.”
Trump did not clarify who he was speaking to in Iran to confirm the state of planned executions.
That is important since, even as he was offering Iran kind words, harsh repression that has left several thousand people dead appeared to have successfully stifled demonstrations across the country.

Protests that began December 28 over an ailing economy and morphed into protests directly challenging the country’s theocracy seem to have stopped.
There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to outward normality, though a week-old internet blackout continued.
Authorities have not reported any unrest elsewhere in the country.
Still, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday put the death toll from demonstrations at 2,797, and that number continues to rise.
Meanwhile, Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged the US to make good on its perhaps now dwindling pledge to intervene, calling Trump “a man of his word”.


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Donald Trump

Trump thanks Iran for ‘cancelling’ hanging of hundreds of political prisoners

A member of the Iranian community holds a poster depicitng Iran’s exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi and US President Donald Trump outside the US embassy in Bucharest, Romania, on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi speaks at the National Press Club in Washington on Friday. Photo: AFP,

Iran cleric demands death for protesters, threatens Trump amid unrest

Iranian senior cleric Ahmad Khatami delivers his sermon during Friday prayer in Tehran in January 2018. Photo: AP

Demonstrators take part in a pro-government rally in Kerman, Iran on January 12. Photo: dpa

A police station is set on fire on January 10, during protests in Tehran in response to worsening economic conditions. Photo: dpa

Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia plan defence pact as US-Iran row threatens Middle East

A protester waves the Iranian flag outside UN headquarters in New York during a Security Council meeting on Iran on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan addresses a press briefing meeting in Istanbul on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Pakistani protesters hold a photo of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an anti-US rally in Lahore on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Exiled crown prince’s plan for Iran seen as mostly aimed at Trump

Iranians demonstrate in Rome against the Iranian leadership and in support of the exiled shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi. Photo: Marco Di Gianvito/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Rez Pahlavi’s father, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and his wife, Empress Farah Diba, during an official state visit to France in 1961. Photo: AFP

A masked demonstrator in Iran holds a picture of Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran. Photo: UGC via AP

Iranian protesters demonstrate against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Tehran in 1978. Photo: AP

US says Iran halted 800 protester executions after Trump warnings

The wreckage of a burnt-out public bus in Tehran. Iran remains under a near-total nationwide internet blackout amid anti-government protests. Photo: EPA

Cars drive under a banner that reads ‘This is not a protest’ in Tehran on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Bodies on the stretchers outside the Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory Centre of Tehran Province, in Kahrizak. Iran. Photo: UGC via AFP

A protester waves the Iranian flag outside UN headquarters in New York on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Erfan Soltani, who was arrested during protests. Photo: Erfan Soltani/Facebook via Reuters

Trump claims ‘killing in Iran is stopping’, but keeps US options open

Women cross a street under a huge banner showing hands firmly holding Iranian flags in Tehran on Wednesday. Photo: AP

Empty airspace over Iran during a temporary closure to most flights earlier Thursday. Photo: FlightRadar24.com via Reuters

Cars on fire during a protest in Tehran on January 9. Photo UGC via AFP

A damaged government building in Tehran. Photo: Getty Images via TNS

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World

Middle East

The president has suggested for days that the US might strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings in its crackdown on protesters


The president has suggested for days that the US might strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings in its crackdown on protesters.


Trump thanks Iran for ‘cancelling’ hanging of hundreds of political prisoners

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The president has suggested for days that the US might strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings in its crackdown on protesters

The president has suggested for days that the US might strike Iran if its government triggered mass killings in its crackdown on protesters