{"id":197281,"date":"2026-01-18T02:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/protests-in-iran-appear-to-have-slowed-as-khamenei-claims-trump-personally-encouraged-unrest-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T02:26:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T02:26:43","slug":"protests-in-iran-appear-to-have-slowed-as-khamenei-claims-trump-personally-encouraged-unrest-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/protests-in-iran-appear-to-have-slowed-as-khamenei-claims-trump-personally-encouraged-unrest-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests in Iran appear to have slowed as Khamenei claims Trump 'personally encouraged' unrest – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Massive protests that rocked Iran for over two weeks appear to have slowed significantly, as President Donald Trump<\/a> partially backs off his threats to intervene and stop the widespread killing and execution of protesters.
\u201cI greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!\u201d Trump posted Friday<\/a> on Truth Social, in an abrupt change of tone from threats of possible military action days before.
On Tuesday, Trump had called on Iranians to keep protesting and \u201ctake over institutions,\u201d saying that \u201chelp is on its way.\u201d<\/a>
Iran\u2019s judiciary said Thursday that a man feared to be facing the first execution would not face the death penalty, but the White House has not provided a source for the claim that 800 have been spared.
Iran\u2019s semiofficial Fars news agency said Saturday that street unrest has largely subsided, while Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said key agitators had been detained.
In a public address, Khamenei denounced Trump\u2019s earlier remarks about the protests. \u201cThe president of the United States himself encouraged the agitators,\u201d he said.
\u201cWe consider the U.S. president a criminal, both for the casualties, for the damages, and for the slander directed at the Iranian nation,\u201d he added.
Khamenei said \u201cthe Iranian nation has defeated America\u201d and security forces have rounded up key leaders behind the unrest, adding: \u201cWe have no intention of leading the country into war, but we will not let domestic criminals go [unpunished].\u201d
The leader also acknowledged for the first time that \u201cthousands\u201d of people had died in the unrest. Previously, Iranian officials said hundreds had been killed.
\u201cIt\u2019s time to look for new leadership in Iran,\u201d Trump told Politico in an interview on Saturday<\/a>, after learning of Khamenei\u2019s remarks.
\u201cThe man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people,\u201d he said. \u201cHis country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.\u201d
The brutal crackdown has left at least 3,090 dead, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, a\u00a0U.S.-based Iranian activist group that relies on supporters inside Iran to track the protests and monitor deaths. The organization also reported 22,123 arrests.
\u201cThe Iranian regime has a bloody track record, but as the toll soars there may well be no precedent to the speed and ferocity with which it\u2019s acted this time,\u201d Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, told NBC News in a text message responding to questions.
The vast majority of the killings took place after the internet was cut on Jan. 8, human rights activists and observers say. It has yet to be restored, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks,<\/a> leaving most Iranians cut off from the outside world.
Mobile phone texting services, which had also been cut, were at least partially restored, the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported on Friday<\/a>.
The demonstrations were sparked by economic grievances as the rial currency crashed and inflation soared, morphing into one of the biggest challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in the theocracy\u2019s 47-year history, as thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand the end of the ruling clergy.
Despite the judiciary appearing to back away from executions, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric, demanded the execution of protesters in a fiery Friday prayer sermon in Tehran.
\u201cThese terrorists should be hanged at the very scene of their crimes,\u201d he said, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.
A U.S. official told NBC News on Wednesday that the Defense Department was preparing to send additional U.S. forces and assets to the Middle East, while the U.S. began evacuating key personnel from its largest military base in the region<\/a> ahead of a possible strike.
The international community must act \u201cto end further massacres of protesters in Iran,\u201d Amnesty International said Friday in a post on X<\/a>, calling for special sessions of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Security Council to be convened to prevent violence.
For now, it appears that the mass killings have deterred protesters, but the regime will likely face future unrest because it has not addressed the root causes of the grievances, including the dismal economy, water shortages, electricity blackouts and restrictions on social freedoms, analysts say.
\u201cThey\u2019ve already won the battle against their people, but I think ultimately they\u2019re going to lose the war,\u201d Sina Azodi, director of the Middle East studies program at George Washington University, said in a telephone interview.
Khamenei acknowledged Saturday that \u201cthe economic situation is not good, and people\u2019s livelihoods are truly facing difficulties,\u201d adding: \u201cGovernment officials must work twice as hard as usual and act with greater seriousness and determination.\u201d
Babak Dehghanpisheh is an NBC News Digital international editor based in New York.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeMassive protests that rocked Iran for over two weeks appear to have slowed significantly, as President Donald Trump partially backs off his threats to intervene and stop the widespread killing and execution of protesters.\u201cI greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-197281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}