The deadly and violent protests in Iran that started on December 28 and which directly put the country on a collision course with the United States kept the entire region on the edge on Wednesday night and early Thursday.
Thousands of demonstrators have reportedly been killed and many more injured in the street agitation that followed a steep depreciation in the Iranian currency.
US President Donald Trump warned Tehran that if security forces continued killing protesters, Washington could intervene militarily or take ‘very hard’ action.
From Tehran’s official standpoint, the unrest was portrayed not as a legitimate uprising but as violence fomented by foreign enemies seeking to destabilise the country.
Iranian leaders have blamed the United States, Israel and other external powers for inciting unrest and defended their security response as necessary to protect national stability, while dismissing US threats as interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
Trump took a particularly hardline after reports emerged that Iran was planning to execute some protestors.
“We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” he said. “When they start killing thousands of people — and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them.”
In the past two days, Iran eased some restrictions and, for the first time in days, allowed citizens to make phone calls abroad via their mobile phones.
Later, Trump also appeared to have dialled down the rhetoric and said the killing of Iranian protesters “has stopped”.
But then Iran closed its airspace to most flights in the wee hours of January 15, sending social media into a frenzy over a possible US strike.
Here are the major developments from the past 24 hours.
Trump says killing in Iran ‘is stopping’
Trump said Wednesday he was informed that “executions” of anti-government protesters in Iran are being halted.
“We have been notified and pretty strongly, but we’ll find out what that all means. But we’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping. It’s stopped,” Trump told the reporters at the White House.
“There’s no plan for executions — an execution or executions. I’ve been told that on good authority. We’ll find out about it,” he added.
Iran protester won’t face death penalty: judiciary
An Iranian man arrested during a wave of protests, who NGOs and Washington had warned faced imminent execution, has not been sentenced to death and is not facing charges that risk the death penalty, the judiciary said on Thursday.
He has “not been sentenced to death” and if he is convicted, “the punishment, according to the law, will be imprisonment, as the death penalty does not exist for such charges”, it added.
Iran’s airspace reopens
Iran’s airspace reopened to traffic Thursday after a temporary closure to most flights expired, with tracking data showing aircrafts making their way towards Tehran.
FlightRadar24, an online flight tracking service, confirmed that the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) restricting Iranian airspace had expired, and multiple flights were observed entering the country’s airspace.
UNSC to meet on Iran
The UN Security Council is slated to meet Thursday afternoon for “a briefing on the situation in Iran,” according to a spokesperson for the Somali presidency.
The scheduling note said the briefing was requested by the United States.
US Embassy in Qatar warns citizens to stay alert