Trump says Iran has ‘no plan’ to execute protesters
WASHINGTON — There’s a specific kind of tension that settles over Washington when the Middle East starts to boil, and right now, that tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump stood in the White House and tried to offer a glimmer of hope—or perhaps just a tactical pause. He told reporters that, according to "very important sources on the other side," the Iranian government has no immediate plans to go through with scheduled executions.
“The killing in Iran is stopping,” Trump claimed, though he was quick to add that he simply "hoped" these reports were accurate. It’s a precarious position to be in. On one hand, you have a President telling the world that the gallows are staying empty; on the other, you have a White House that refuses to take military action off the table while Tehran continues its brutal, high-stakes crackdown on its own people.
Strategic Retreats and Empty Skies
While the rhetoric coming out of the briefing room sounded like a de-escalation, the tactical moves on the ground tell a much more nervous story. The U.S. and Great Britain have already started thinning out their staff at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar. Officials are calling this a "precautionary move," but you don’t pull personnel from the largest U.S. military installation in the region—home to 10,000 Americans—unless you’re bracing for the worst.
The atmosphere isn't just heavy on the ground; it’s palpable in the skies. Overnight, Iranian airspace turned into a ghost town for five hours, forcing every major airline to scramble and reroute. Germany has already signaled its alarm, with Lufthansa bypassing the country entirely after Berlin warned that the region is now an "increasingly volatile conflict zone" bristling with anti-aviation weaponry. Even the British embassy in Tehran has effectively pulled the plug, moving to remote operations as the streets become too hot to handle.
The Face of the Resistance: Erfan Soltani
Beyond the troop movements and the flight paths, there are the human beings caught in the gears of this uprising. The name on everyone’s lips right now is Erfan Soltani. He’s a 26-year-old shopkeeper from Fardis, a man whose life became a bargaining chip in a global standoff. His family told BBC Persian that he was supposed to be executed this past Wednesday.
While the Norway-based rights group Hengaw later reported a postponement, the Iranian authorities haven’t bothered to give the family any real details. They only say he was picked up during the protests. Trump had previously warned of "very strong action" if the state moved forward with these executions, and for the moment, it seems that threat might be the only thing keeping the noose loose.
Tehran’s Defiant Warning
But don't expect the Iranian leadership to go quietly. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi took to Fox News to insist that “hanging is out of the question” for now, but he paired that reassurance with a razor-sharp warning. He told the U.S. President not to repeat the "failed experience" of June 2025, when American bombers hit three Iranian nuclear sites.
Araghchi’s message was blunt: if the U.S. tries that again, they should expect the same result. This isn't just diplomatic posturing; it’s a direct threat from a regime that feels backed into a corner. Meanwhile, the U.S. Mission in Saudi Arabia is already telling its people to steer clear of military sites, an clear indicator that everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop.
A Revolution in the Dark
What started back in late December as a desperate reaction to a collapsing currency has exploded into something much bigger—a direct, fundamental challenge to the legitimacy of the clerical leadership. Trump has been leaning into this on Truth Social, shouting “KEEP PROTESTING” and promising that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY”.
Yet, for all the bravado, there is no clear plan for what happens if the regime actually falls. When asked if he’d back Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last shah, Trump was uncharacteristically non-committal. He called Pahlavi “very nice” but questioned whether the Iranian people would actually accept him back after all these years.
The truth is, it’s hard to know what the Iranian people want because the regime has plunged the country into a total internet blackout. We are flying blind. However, the data we do have from the Human Rights Activists News Agency is horrifying:
2,435 protesters are confirmed dead.
13 children have been killed in the crossfire.
882 more deaths are currently being investigated.
As the world watches and waits, the people of Iran are fighting a revolution in the dark, with nearly 2,500 lives already paid as the price of admission. Whether Trump’s "sources" are right about the killings stopping remains to be seen, but on the ground, the fire is still very much alive.
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