.png)
IRAN appeared to return to a tense calm after a wave of protests that prompted a deadly crackdown, as a senior hard-line cleric publicly called for the execution of detained demonstrators and directly threatened Donald Trump, underscoring the anger gripping the Islamic Republic’s leadership.
AP reported on Saturday that the inflammatory remarks contrasted sharply with comments from Trump, who thanked Iran’s leaders for not carrying out mass executions of protesters, fuelling speculation that Washington may be stepping back from the brink of military action.
Executions and the killing of peaceful demonstrators are among the red lines Trump has previously cited for possible action against Tehran.
“Iran cancelled the hanging of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “I greatly respect the fact that they cancelled.”
Trump did not say whom he had spoken to in Iran to confirm whether executions had been planned.
The protests, which erupted on Dec 28 over Iran’s deteriorating economy before evolving into a direct challenge to the country’s theocratic system, appear to have been smothered by force. Several thousand people are believed to have been killed.
There have been no signs of fresh demonstrations for days in Tehran, where shops have reopened and street life has returned to an outward appearance of normality, although an internet blackout that began more than a week ago remains in place. Authorities have reported no new unrest elsewhere in the country.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday placed the death toll at 3,090, a figure that exceeds any other round of unrest in Iran in recent decades and evokes the turmoil surrounding the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The organisation, which relies on a network of activists inside Iran to verify fatalities, has a long track record of accuracy.
AP has not been able to independently confirm the number, and Iranian authorities have released no official casualty figures.
Against this backdrop, a sermon delivered by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami and broadcast on state radio inflamed tensions further.
The hard-line cleric, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council, drew chants from worshippers, including: “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!”
Khatami described protesters as the “butlers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers,” warning that both leaders should await “hard revenge from the system.”
“Americans and Zionists should not expect peace,” he said.
His remarks came as international efforts continued to prevent further escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin held separate calls with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Netanyahu, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russia had previously remained largely silent on the protests, even as it watched several allies suffer setbacks while Moscow’s attention and resources have been absorbed by its four-year war in Ukraine.
These setbacks include the fall of Syria’s former president Bashar Assad in 2024, US and Israeli strikes on Iran last year, and the US seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.
Days after Trump declared that “help is on its way” for Iranian protesters, both the demonstrations and the prospect of imminent US retaliation appeared to fade. One diplomat told the Associated Press that senior officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had warned Trump that a US military intervention could disrupt the global economy and further destabilise an already volatile region.
Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, urged Washington to follow through on its pledge to assist the protesters. Speaking in Washington, he said he continued to believe Trump’s assurances.
“I believe the president is a man of his word,” Pahlavi said, adding that “regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice to carry on the fight.”
“I will return to Iran,” he vowed.
Hours later, he called on demonstrators to return to the streets from Saturday to Monday.
While Pahlavi retains strong backing among monarchists in the Iranian diaspora, he has struggled to gain broad support inside Iran. Nevertheless, he continues to present himself as a potential transitional leader should the current system collapse.
Khatami also offered the first official overview of damage caused during the unrest, claiming that 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy sites had been damaged.
He said 80 homes belonging to Friday prayer leaders had also been attacked, highlighting the fury directed at symbols of the ruling system.
According to his account, 400 hospitals, 106 ambulances, 71 fire service vehicles and another 50 emergency vehicles sustained damage during the unrest.
Although protests appear to have been suppressed inside Iran, demonstrations by exiled Iranians and their supporters have continued across Europe, where thousands have taken to the streets to condemn the government in Tehran.
With internet access still largely cut off, some Iranians have crossed borders to communicate with the outside world. At a crossing in Turkey’s eastern province of Van, travellers said they were leaving Iran to bypass the blackout.
“I will go back to Iran after they open the internet,” said a man who gave only his first name, Mehdi, citing security concerns.
Among those leaving were Turkish citizens caught up in the unrest. Mehmet Önder, 47, said he had been in Tehran on business when the protests began. He stayed inside his hotel until it was closed for security reasons, then sheltered with a customer before managing to return to Turkey.
Although he did not venture onto the streets, he said he heard sustained gunfire.
“I understand guns, because I served in the military in the southeast of Turkey,” he said. “The guns they were firing were not simple weapons. They were machine-guns.”
In a sign of the unrest’s potential to spill beyond Iran’s borders, a Kurdish separatist group based in Iraq said it had launched attacks on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in recent days in retaliation for the crackdown.
A representative of the Kurdistan Freedom Party said its members had “played a role in the protests through both financial support and armed operations to defend protesters when needed,” adding that the attacks were carried out by its military wing operating inside Iran. - January 17, 2026