The United Nations Security Council is holding an emergency meeting to discuss the protests in Iran at the request of the United States, although it is unclear what action US President Donald Trump will take in response to any attack.
Trump said earlier Thursday that Iran’s crackdown on protests has eased its killing spree, and that despite earlier threats to intervene, he believed there was no plan for large-scale killings.
Trump posted on social media in response to news reports that an Iranian dissident was not being sentenced to death: “That’s good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”
Iran and its Western enemies
Iranian officials have turned the protests from a legitimate economic protest against their foreign enemies into violence, accusing what they describe as terrorists of attacking security forces and public property.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to support the opposition in Iran, although he has weighed in on the consequences. Iranian officials have threatened to target US assets.
US tells UN that ‘all options’ are on the table in Iran.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the United States stands with “the brave people of Iran.”
“President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations. He has made it clear that all options are on the table to stop the carnage,” Washington said at a Security Council meeting requested by Washington.
Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad spoke at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council about the deadly crackdown on Iranian protests. “You tried to kill me three times,” Alinejad told the representative of the Islamic Republic sitting in the House.
Waltz rejected Iran’s accusation that the demonstrations were a “foreign conspiracy to prepare for military action.”
“Everybody in the world should know that the regime is weaker than ever, so it’s telling this lie because of the power of the Iranian people in the streets. They’re afraid. They’re afraid of their own people,” Waltz said.
Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamhossein Darzi, said Iran does not seek conflict or conflict, and accused Waltz of “a deliberate disinformation campaign to hide its direct involvement in Iran’s escalation of violence.”
However, any form of violence – direct or indirect – will receive a decisive, proportionate and legal response. “This is not a threat, it is a statement of legal reality.”
There is no death sentence for dissidents.
After Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran has “no plans” to hang people, Iranian state media reported on Thursday that a 26-year-old man arrested during protests in the city of Karaj would not be executed.
Earlier this week, the rights organization Hengau reported Essam Soltani, 26, who was arrested in connection with the protests in the Iranian city of Karaj, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.
However, on Thursday, Iranian state media said that if Soltani was accused of “spreading propaganda against the country’s internal security and regime”, the death penalty would not apply to those charges if upheld in court.
America imposed sanctions.
People inside Iran, reached by Reuters on Wednesday and Thursday, said the protests appeared to have subsided since Monday.
The flow of information was disrupted due to a week-long internet outage.
President Massoud Pezeshkian said last Thursday that the government was trying to solve some of the economic problems that had sparked the protests in the first place. He said this would improve the purchasing power of poor people.
Still, Washington put pressure on Tehran on Thursday by imposing sanctions on five Iranian officials it accuses of being behind the attack, saying it is monitoring the movement of Iranian leaders’ money through banks around the world.
The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on the Secretary of the National Security Council as well as commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and law enforcement forces.
“The U.S. Treasury knows they are sinking rats, funneling money stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world. Rest assured, we will be watching them and you,” Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said in a video.
“But we still have time if you choose to join us. As President Trump said, stop the violence and stand with the people of Iran.”
Sanctions were also imposed on Fardis Prison, where the US State Department said the women were “subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”.
The Group of Seven states are prepared to impose further restrictive measures against Iran if it continues to take action.
Trump says he’s been told murders are going down.
Tensions escalated on Wednesday, with Iran warning its neighbors it would hit US military bases in the region in the event of a US strike, and a US official said the US was evacuating some personnel from settlements in the region.
Trump, for his part, said he had been told by “very important sources on the other side” that the killings under his control were going down.
He did not deny the possibility of US military action, but said his administration had received a “very positive statement” from Iran.
The security alert level at the US Al Udeid airport in Qatar has been downgraded after being on high alert on Wednesday, three sources briefed on the situation told Reuters on Thursday.
In Iran’s fragmented opposition, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi emerged as a prominent voice during the upheaval. The 65-year-old Pahlavi, who is based in the US, has lived outside Iran since before the fall of Iran’s last shah, his father.
“He looks great, but I don’t know how he’s going to play in his country,” Trump told Reuters, “and we haven’t really gotten to that point yet.”
“I don’t know if the country will accept the leadership or not, and if they do, that’s fine with me.”
The Trump administration is weighing military intervention in Iran as the regime continues its bloody crackdown on protesters across the country. Andrew Chang explains why some experts believe the United States could use a window of opportunity to strike an already vulnerable Iran. Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
Canadian among those killed
US-based human rights group HRANA says it has confirmed the deaths of 2,435 protesters and 153 pro-government individuals since the protests erupted on December 28 last year.
Reports surfaced early Wednesday that a Canadian citizen was among the dead.
“Our consular officials are meeting with the victim’s family in Canada and my deepest condolences are with them at this time,” Foreign Minister Anita Anand said in a statement on Thursday, without identifying the person.
The Government of Canada itself and As part of the G7 On Wednesday, he condemned the Iranian regime’s crackdown on protesters and supported the human rights of Iranian protesters.