Iran signaled it would not move ahead with executing protesters and reopened its airspace Thursday, as President Donald Trump left it unclear whether he would take military action over the regime’s deadly crackdown.
At a Glance
- Iran’s judiciary said protester Erfan Soltani, 26, would not face the death penalty
- 800 executions that were reportedly scheduled were halted, according to the White House
- The Pentagon is sending a carrier strike group and additional aircraft to the Middle East
- Why it matters: The U.S. is weighing military action while Iran appears to be backing down from immediate executions
The Pentagon is preparing to send additional U.S. forces and assets to the Middle East, a U.S. official told News Of Losangeles on Wednesday.
This includes a carrier strike group, additional aircraft and land-based air defense systems, the official said. The additional forces are to bolster the military’s assets in the region as tensions remain high and the president considers military action in Iran, the official said. The forces are also to ensure the military is prepared if Iran lashes out at American assets or U.S. allies in the region, according to the official.
The equipment and thousands of additional forces will arrive in the coming days and weeks, the official said.
The United States began evacuating key personnel from its largest military base in the Middle East on Wednesday as the prospect of an American strike loomed, and activists said the death toll in Iran had passed 2,500.
But speaking by phone to News Of Losangeles on Thursday, Trump said “we saved a lot of lives yesterday,” an apparent reference to his claim that the Iranian regime has stopped killing protesters and halted some planned executions, which he had previously warned could trigger a U.S. military response.
Trump did not say whether he has decided to take action on Iran, responding: “I’m not going to tell you that.”
Executions Halted
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a daily news briefing Thursday that “the president understands 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted,” though she did not detail the source for the figure.
She said Trump had made it clear to Iran that “if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” adding that “all options remain on the table.”
Iran’s judiciary said Thursday that a man feared to be facing the first execution would not face the death penalty.
Erfan Soltani, 26, was expected to be the first protester to face execution, according to the State Department and human rights groups.
Iran’s judiciary said that he had not been sentenced to capital punishment. Soltani’s charge of “colluding against the country’s internal security and propaganda activities against the regime” did not carry the death penalty but he remained behind bars, state media reported.
The Norway-based Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said his execution had been “postponed,” citing information from Soltani’s relatives. Amnesty International said the same, citing a source.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also appeared to step back from official calls for rapid justice by telling Fox News that there would not be “any hanging today or tomorrow or whatever.” He said, “I’m confident about that. There is no plan for hanging at all.”
But Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, told state media Thursday that Iran would use all its capabilities to “suppress armed savage terrorists.”
Earlier in the day, Trump said in the Oval Office, “It’s stopped. It’s stopping, and there’s no plan for executions.”
Discussing the response from security forces, Trump said that “people were shooting at them with guns, and they were shooting back.” He added: “And you know, it’s one of those things.”
Trump is ready to follow through on his repeated promises to protesters that the U.S. would intervene militarily to support them, but has told his advisers he would want any action to deliver a swift and decisive blow to the regime, according to a U.S. official, two people familiar with the discussions and a person close to the White House.
They have so far not been able to give him that guarantee, the sources said.
Airspace Reopened
With the world watching for potential signs of U.S. action, Iran closed its airspace for nearly five hours overnight into Thursday, issuing a “NOTAM” – or “notice to all airmen” – that all flights were banned except ones to and from Tehran that had been given special permission.
During that time, FlightRadar24 and other tracking websites showed no planes over the country, which lies along key East-West aviation routes. That notice was valid for around two hours and nearly five hours, later some planes were seeing making their way toward Tehran, FlightRadar24 showed.
Iran closed its airspace during its 12-day aerial conflict with Israel in June.
Despite the resumed air traffic and calmer rhetoric, the country is still reeling from the crackdown on the unrest that rocked the Islamic Republic, according to activists and analysts.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Wednesday that it had confirmed more than 2,600 deaths – including 150 security personnel – and more than 18,000 arrests in protests that were sparked by skyrocketing inflation and the crash of the Iranian rial against the U.S. dollar.
Protests kicked off in the capital, Tehran, but had spread to 187 cities around the country, according to HRANA.
The advocacy group says it relies on supporters in Iran cross-checking information and that its data goes through “multiple internal checks.” HRANA attributed a dramatic rise in its death toll this week to Iranians’ ability to make their first calls to the outside world in days since an internet and phone blackout. Authorities have not released an official death toll.
There have been harsh crackdowns on protests in the past but the level of violence in recent days indicated security forces had “waged their deadliest crackdown yet,” Amnesty International said in a report Wednesday.
The ruling clergy has not indicated that it will back off the ongoing crackdown to maintain the Islamic Republic, analysts say.
“Whatever political legitimacy it had is long gone,” Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told News Of Losangeles in a text message response to questions. “It still has a repressive capacity and dwindling base of support, but its long twilight keeps getting darker.”
