Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday derided a report by the Israel Hayom newspaper that the Islamic Republic had secretly executed thousands of people who participated in protests after telling Washington it would not do so.
“Whenever Miriam Adelson’s mouthpiece pushes a dramatic claim about Iran, it’s worth asking who it serves,” Araghchi posted on X, referring to the Israeli-American philanthropist who owns the free daily. “Even the US president has acknowledged where her primary loyalties lie.”
He went on: “In its latest piece, Adelson’s outlet declared — just an hour before [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s White House visit — that Iran had ‘deceived’ Trump.
“The facts: No executions have taken place, no court process has been concluded, and more than 2,000 prisoners have been pardoned. Before buying the narrative being peddled, consider who benefits from it — and who may actually be doing the deceiving.”
According to the Israel Hayom report, information has reached several intelligence agencies — including Israel’s Mossad and British and German services — indicating that the Islamic Republic has executed thousands of protesters, despite having told the US it wouldn’t do so.
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Regime forces have shot or strangled the protesters in custody, the intelligence reportedly indicates, and have told the protesters’ families that they were killed amid the unrest, despite evidence they were arrested alive.
The report, published Wednesday in English and Hebrew, cited two unnamed diplomats. It came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump on, among other things, a potential strike on Iran, and it was published shortly before the meeting began.
Whenever Miriam Adelson’s mouthpiece pushes a dramatic claim about Iran, it’s worth asking who it serves. Even the U.S. President has acknowledged where her primary loyalties lie.
In its latest piece, Adelson’s outlet declared—just an hour before Netanyahu’s White House… pic.twitter.com/pJK3JFqRz8
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) February 11, 2026
In January, as mass protests grew in Iran, Trump threatened to attack the Islamic Republic if it killed the demonstrators. After regime forces killed thousands of them – tens of thousands, according to some reports – the US boosted its military presence in the region. The US has not struck Iran as of yet, however. Trump has cited both Iran’s supposed cancellation of planned executions and the resumed negotiations with the regime as reasons for holding off.
The report on Wednesday claimed that, in addition to lying about the executions of protesters, Iran lied to the US about accepting preconditions for negotiations. According to the report, the Islamic Republic initially said it was willing to discuss its nuclear program, its ballistic missile program, and its support for terror groups across the Middle East, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen. Then, the regime backtracked.
Boys stand on a launcher of an Iranian domestically-built missile during an annual rally marking 1979 Islamic Revolution at the Azadi (Freedom) sq. in Tehran, Iran, on February 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
First, Iran refused to conduct the talks in Turkey, with representatives of other countries, such as Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia present. Talks were then moved to Oman, within the same general format in which talks were held between the US and Iran last year about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Those 2025 talks focused solely on the nuclear issue — not the ballistic missiles or terror proxies — and they ended when Israel attacked Iran in June in order to cripple the nuclear and ballistic missile programs by force, citing them both as imminent, existential threats to the Jewish state.
After the US agreed to hold the talks in Oman, Iran then demanded the US stop its buildup of military forces in the region and withdraw additional forces it had already sent, the report said. Washington was reportedly “furious about this and nearly canceled [the talks],” before Tehran caved.
Finally, once talks were held, the Iranians would not negotiate on anything other than the nuclear program, according to Israel Hayom.
There was no outside corroboration of most of the newspaper’s claims, though it has been widely reported that the sides quarreled over the location of negotiations and the participants.
In this photo released by state-run Oman News Agency, Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, left, shakes hands with Iran’s Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani during their meeting in Muscat, Oman, February 10, 2026. (State-run Oman News Agency via AP)
After Araghchi’s post to X on Wednesday, Israel Hayom noted that despite the Iranian diplomat’s claim that “more than 2,000 prisoners have been pardoned,” Iran’s Deputy Judiciary Chief Ali Mozaffari has stated that protesters from recent demonstrations were not among them.
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