Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Donald Trump earlier this week and urged him to “postpone” any plan to attack Iran following the mass slaughter of pro-democracy protestors in the country, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Trump surprised many during an Oval Office event on Thursday, saying, “We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, and it’s stopped, it’s stopping. And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or executions.” He later added that his administration would take a “wait and see” posture before following through on Trump’s promise to intervene if Iran killed protesters, which it has done en masse in recent days:
The Times added some background to Trump’s apparent flip-flop, reporting that “Netanyahu spoke to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the same day the American president said he had received information from ‘very important sources on the other side’ that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not going forward with executions. That appeared to signal that Mr. Trump was backing away from a potential U.S. attack on Iran, which he has been weighing for days.”
The Times noted that Trump could also be following the same playbook he used when he struck Iran in June, which included contradicting signals as to whether or not he would order the strike.
Meanwhile, on Friday, an Iranian cleric called for the death penalty for protesters detained during a nationwide crackdown amid ongoing unrest against the Islamic regime.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon, which was broadcast by Iranian state radio, reportedly sparked chants from those gathered for prayers. The Associated Press reported that the chants included, “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!”
Fox News reports that Khatami, who was appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and serves on the country’s Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council, had previously spoken out against protesters. He described them as being “butlers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers.”
Khamenei made similar remarks, saying that the protesters were “ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy,” referring to Trump.
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