Iran’s deadly crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of U.S. threats to intervene if killing continues.
After President Donald Trump’s repeated threats of military action against Iran in support of protesters, fears of a U.S. attack have retreated since Wednesday, when Trump said he’d been told killings in the crackdown were easing.
U.S. allies including Saudi Arabia and Qatar conducted intense diplomacy with Washington this week to prevent a U.S. strike, warning of consequences for the wider region that would ultimately impact the United States, a Gulf official said.
The White House said on Thursday that Trump is closely monitoring the situation on the ground, adding that the president and his team have warned Tehran there would be “grave consequences” if killings linked to its crackdown continue.
Trump understands that 800 scheduled executions were halted, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt added, saying the president was keeping “all of his options on the table.”
The protests erupted on December 28 over soaring inflation in Iran, whose economy has been crippled by sanctions, before spiraling into one of the biggest challenges yet to the clerical establishment that has run Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
With information flows from Iran obstructed by an internet blackout, several residents of Tehran said the capital had been quiet since Sunday. They said drones were flying over the city, where they’d seen no sign of protests on Thursday or Friday.
Iranian-Kurdish rights group Hengaw said that there had been no protest gatherings since Sunday, saying “the security environment remains highly restrictive.”
“Our independent sources confirm a heavy military and security presence in cities and towns where protests previously took place, as well as in several locations that did not experience major demonstrations,” Norway-based Hengaw said in comments to Reuters.
Hellbound and Down 