{"id":699071,"date":"2026-01-16T03:57:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699071\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T03:57:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T03:57:20","slug":"netanyahu-persuaded-trump-to-postpone-airstrikes-against-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/699071\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu \u2018persuaded Trump to postpone airstrikes against Iran\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister, asked President Trump to postpone strikes on Iran after a deadly regime crackdown on protests, according to reports. <\/p>\n

The prospect of a US intervention in Iran seemed to diminish on Thursday, although the White House insisted Trump continued to \u201ckeep all of his options on the table\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is a man of action,\u201d Mike Waltz, Trump\u2019s ambassador to the United Nations, told the UN security council in New York. \u201cNo one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of protesters had been saved from execution thanks to the president\u2019s intervention, according to Karoline Leavitt, Trump\u2019s press secretary. <\/p>\n

She said: \u201c[The president] continues to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Iran and as we saw yesterday he had heard that the killings and executions would stop. And we have seen 800 people, their lives have been spared as a result of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel, long an adversary of Iran, persuaded Trump on Wednesday to delay any action in response to the weeks-long protests, according to the New York Times. Netanyahu\u2019s office refused to comment.<\/p>\n

Earlier a Saudi official said Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman had led efforts to talk the US out of an attack, fearing Iranian retaliation.<\/p>\n

The nations \u201cled a long, frantic, diplomatic last-minute effort to convince President Trump to give Iran a chance to show good intention\u201d, the official said.<\/p>\n

After a fortnight of the deadliest protests in Iran for a generation and a week into an internet blackout, the ayatollah and his men, it seemed, had weathered the storm.<\/p>\n

\"Commuters<\/p>\n

Protests in Tehran had died down on Thursday for fear of reprisals<\/p>\n

ATTA KENARE\/AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

As the prospect of US intervention waned, funerals took place across the country on Thursday for those killed in the protests, residents said.<\/p>\n

The burials were held behind a shroud of silence, unlike the solemn send-offs for police who had fought to suppress the uprising, which were broadcast on state-run television for the world to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the crackdown, the protests slowed, but fear and grief filled the air. Mass funerals are taking place across Iran<\/a>. Many of us feel desperate,\u201d one woman, who had taken part in the protests, said in a rare text that slipped out from the country in a messaging app.<\/p>\n

Videos on social media purported to show protesters on the streets of Tehran on Wednesday night, but their numbers had dwindled under the threat of death or imprisonment. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Why is Iran protesting now? A timeline since the 1979 Islamic Revolution<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

President Trump had hinted at US action against the regime hours earlier, posting on his Truth Social platform \u201cHELP IS ON ITS WAY\u201d on Tuesday, with officials suggesting a strike may take place imminently. The next day, personnel and aircraft were withdrawn from al-Udeid airbase in Qatar, the US regional military headquarters.<\/p>\n

However, later on Wednesday Trump said he had been assured that the \u201ckilling has stopped\u201d and there were no plans for executions.<\/p>\n

On Thursday the president posted a message on social media suggesting an Iranian protester would no longer face the death penalty<\/a>. An \u201cIranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump\u2019s warnings,\u201d he wrote, adding: \u201cThis is good news. Hopefully, it will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House said on Thursday said that 800 executions had been halted in Iran. Leavitt added that \u201call options remain on the table for the president\u201d. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s judiciary denied it had scheduled the execution of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested for opposing the regime in the recent demonstrations. Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, also said there was \u201cno plan\u201d to hang people.<\/p>\n

\"Erfan<\/p>\n

Opposition groups have claimed that executions are taking place behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

The Kurdistan National Army, the military wing of the separatist group the Kurdistan Freedom Party, said: \u201cThe situation has now escalated exactly as we anticipated. We are receiving confirmed reports that the regime has shifted its strategy to \u2018silent massacres\u2019. Unlike previous public displays, executions are now being carried out in prison basements to avoid international scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

The text-message demonstrator , who was based in Tehran but has moved this week to a safer city, said the protests had peaked on the nights of January 9 and 10. \u201cProtests started at the end of 2025. At first it was just a few chants from traders echoing through the streets, but soon they spread to major cities and along the main roads,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the part of the protest and saw students, workers and families; mothers carrying babies; and women briefly removing their headscarves as they spoke out before moving on and chanting slogans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin minutes, police arrived in vehicles, sirens blaring. Tear gas and pellet guns tore through the crowd. I ran through narrow alleys, hearing screams and seeing women shielding their children. People around me were shot, some at close range, and I watched in horror as some did not survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThe nights were unbearable. Tehran\u2019s streets were packed. Security forces fired indiscriminately with machine guns, yet people kept chanting \u2018death to the dictator\u2019 and helping the wounded, and carrying the dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conditions in hospitals worsened quickly. \u201cBy January 10, the hospitals were overflowing,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile I was looking for my two cousins and a friend, I came across scores of bodies in makeshift detention areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 2,400 protesters have been killed, according to the Human Rights Activists, a group based in Washington, but the death toll is expected to rise when Tehran eases the communications blackout.<\/p>\n

On Thursday Anita Anand, the Canadian foreign minister, confirmed the first death of a foreign national during the protests. She said the citizen had died \u201cat the hands of the Iranian authorities\u201d. She posted on X: \u201cOur consular officials are in contact with the victim\u2019s family in Canada and my deepest condolences are with them at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 18,000 people have been arrested as the regime has crushed opposition demonstrations.<\/p>\n

At a meeting of the UN security council convened by the US on Thursday, Waltz, the American ambassador, was accompanied by Masih Alinejad, the Iranian-American writer who has been the target of several Iran-backed assassination plots, according to prosecutors in New York.<\/p>\n

Saying she wanted to \u201caddress the representative of the Iranian regime directly\u201d, Alinejad told Iran\u2019s ambassador: \u201cYou have tried to kill me three times. I have seen my would-be assassins with my own eyes in front of my garden in my home in Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plot was foiled and she saw them confess in court, to being hired by Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard, she said. \u201cUnfortunately I live with survivor\u2019s guilt because many Iranians don\u2019t have the same protection.\u201d She called for action \u201cagainst a regime that does not understand diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Waltz said: \u201cPresident Trump has been clear, he will not, nor should the international community tolerate innocents being slaughtered on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian representative, dismissed the addresses to the council by Alinejad and another Iranian-American human rights activist as \u201cnothing more than a circus, a cheap show that is unbefitting of members of the council\u201d.<\/p>\n

He accused the US of \u201cextremely dangerous and irresponsible rhetoric\u201d. He said: \u201cYour actions risk plunging the region into even bloodier chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gholamhossein Darzi, Iran\u2019s deputy ambassador, said: \u201cThe US regime is attempting to portray itself as a friend of the Iranian people while simultaneously laying the groundwork for political destabilisation and military intervention under a so-called humanitarian narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two US carrier groups, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS George HW Bush, have been dispatched towards the region, according to reports, and are set to arrive in the Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean respectively late next week.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s airspace has reopened to traffic after a temporary closure, although several airlines continue to avoid the country\u2019s skies, according to flight-tracking websites. The security warning level at al-Udeid base has also been lowered.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The USS Abraham Lincoln is on its way to the Arabian Sea<\/p>\n

WILL TYNDALL\/AFP<\/p>\n

However, some US senators and commentators have sown doubt on the easing of tensions. Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator, on Thursday wrote on X: \u201cNothing could be further from the truth. Quite the opposite. Stay tuned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel\u2019s prime minister, asked President Trump to postpone strikes on Iran after a deadly regime crackdown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-699071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115902771738588266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}