The White House said “all options remain on the table” for the United States to take military action against Iran, and reiterated that Iran would face “significant consequences” if it continued to kill anti-government protesters.
At a press conference Thursday, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said President Donald Trump and his team had told Iran “there will be serious consequences if the killings continue.”
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“The president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled to take place yesterday have been canceled,” Levitt told reporters, but he offered no evidence to support the claim that the executions had been halted.
“The President and his team are closely monitoring this situation and all options remain open to him,” she added.
Her comments came just hours after President Trump appeared to soften his tone following days of threats against Iran, with the US president saying his administration would take military action against Tehran if there were further killings.
Since late December, thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in large-scale demonstrations sparked by soaring inflation and a sharp devaluation of the local currency.
Protests have spread to cities and towns across Iran, with activist groups saying more than 1,000 demonstrators have been killed in the violence.
The Iranian government described the protesters as an armed insurgency backed by the United States and Israel, its main regional ally, and said more than 100 security personnel were killed in attacks during the demonstrations.
Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify these figures.
tempered rhetoric
After days of heightened tensions and concerns about a U.S. military attack on Iran, President Trump on Wednesday weakened his rhetoric, saying he had received assurances that the killings of protesters had stopped.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also denied that the Iranian government was planning to execute protesters. “Hanging is out of the question,” he told the Fox News broadcaster.
Earlier this week, the foreign minister said Iran was ready for war if the US wanted to “test” Iran.
“If Washington wants to experiment with military options that they have experimented with before, we are ready to do that,” Aragushi said in an interview with colleagues on Al Jazeera Arabia on Monday.
“Big uncertainty”
According to online monitor NetBlocks, it was still difficult to obtain information about what was happening on the ground in Iran on Thursday, marking a week of nationwide internet blackouts.
But residents of Iran’s capital, Tehran, said security had been significantly stepped up in the wake of the unrest. continuing uncertainty.
“There is a large military presence on the streets and other parts of the capital,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“There is so much uncertainty. Many people are worried,” they said. “There’s a lot of death, sadness and anger.”
The commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) also said his army remained on high alert.
Iran’s state-run Press TV reported that Brigadier General Mohammad Karami, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s ground forces, said the military was “at the highest possible level of readiness.”
Separately, Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh warned that the government would use all its capabilities to “quell the barbaric armed terrorists” it claims are behind the uprising.
In comments broadcast on Iranian state television, Nasirzadeh reiterated the government’s previous claims that the demonstrations were orchestrated by the United States and Israel.
“The planners and perpetrators of the riots should know that we are watching them,” he added.
Meanwhile, despite President Trump’s softening of his stance, the US government imposed new sanctions on Iran on Thursday morning for its crackdown on protests.
countermeasure Targeting Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Security Council (SNSC), and several other officials, Washington accused them of being the “architects” of Tehran’s “brutal” response to the protests.
