President Donald Trump thanked Iran’s government on Friday for canceling what he said were executions of political prisoners, as he also suggested the prospect of U.S. military action against Iran was fading.
“Iran canceled 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, adding, “and I greatly respect the fact that they canceled.”
Trump also suggested on his social media site that more than 800 people had been set to be executed in Iran, but that they now won’t be. He posted “Thank you!” on Friday.
The remarks came after Trump spent days suggesting that the U.S. might strike Iran militarily if Iran’s government triggered mass killings during widespread protests that swept the country but have since quieted. The AP reported that Trump’s “rosy assessment” did not appear to match a more complicated situation in Iran, where harsh repression has left several thousand people dead, activists said.
In response to a question on Friday about whether “Help is on the way” still applied, Trump said: “Well, we’re going to see.” He later rejected the idea that Arab and Israeli officials convinced him to back down, saying: “Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself.”
Trump also pointed to the cancellation of executions, telling reporters: “You had yesterday scheduled over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the hangings. That had a big impact.” The AP reported that Trump did not clarify who he was speaking to in Iran to confirm the state of planned executions.
Even as Trump offered kind words to Iran’s government, the AP said harsh repression appeared to have stifled demonstrations across the country. Protests that began Dec. 28 over an ailing economy later morphed into protests directly challenging the country’s theocracy, and the AP reported that there were no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life had returned to outward normality.
The AP also reported that a week-old internet blackout continued in Tehran and that authorities had not reported any unrest elsewhere in Iran. Still, it said the death toll from the demonstrations continues to rise, with the Human Rights Activists News Agency putting it at 2,797.
In a separate appeal, Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged the U.S. to make good on its perhaps now dwindling pledge to intervene, calling Trump “a man of his word.”