Trump has told Tehran he has no plans to attack, an Iranian official claims. What the US President sent
US President Donald J. Trump addresses the media as he makes his way to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, US on January 13, 2026. PHOTO: Shawn Thew / Pool via CNP /MediaPunch / imago stock and people / Profimedia
A US military intervention against the regime in Tehran did not take place overnight Wednesday into Thursday, as several sources suggested. An Iranian diplomat explained that Trump informed Tehran about this, writes Al Jazeera.
Trump informed Iran on Wednesday that he did not intend to attack and asked Tehran to show restraint, Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said on Thursday, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
The Iranian ambassador revealed that Tehran received this information at 1:00 am Pakistan time (20:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
A U.S. strike ultimately failed overnight Wednesday into Thursday, as many had expected, but Trump avoided saying whether he had abandoned such a plan.
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On Wednesday, the White House leader announced that he had been told that killings in the Iranian government's crackdown on protests were declining and that, in his view, there were currently no plans for large-scale executions.
“We have been informed quite categorically — but we'll find out what that means — that the executions in Iran are stopping and they have stopped, and that there is no plan for executions. I've been told that from a reliable source and I hope that's true,” the US leader told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House. The information had “just” reached him, the president said.
Asked who the people were who told him the killings in Iran had stopped, Trump described those people as “very important sources on the other side.”
However, the US president did not rule out possible US military action, saying that “we will follow the progress of the process”, before noting that the administration in Washington had received a “very good statement” from Iran.
The death toll in Iran following the regime's crackdown has reached 2,571 people, according to the Human Rights Activists news agency, cited by The Guardian. Over 18,100 people were arrested.
In recent days, the protests have decreased in intensity.
A resident of Tehran told Al Jazeera that the protests died down after the government's crackdown caused many casualties.
“The protests have calmed down in the last two or three days because of the large number of people killed. That's why people have stopped taking to the streets,” said the local, who wished to remain anonymous.
According to him, the bloodiest period was on Thursday and Friday last week, when large-scale demonstrations swept the capital. Many people were killed and families gathered at cemeteries in Tehran and outside the city to bury them.
Outside cemeteries, mourners carried photos of their loved ones and chanted slogans such as “death to the dictator”.
“The scale of the killing is high. Everyone knows the number of victims is high,” the local was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
