Name: Donald Trump told 'killing has stopped' in Iran after violent protest crackdown | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T13:57:13.000Z
Duration: 10 min 24 s
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We begin in Iran because questions over what President Trump's next move will be in response to the Iranian government's deadly crackdown on demonstrations that swept across the country dominate the news agenda.

Trump said that he's been assured that the executions of protesters have stopped, but

Meanwhile, some US And UK Military personnel have been evacuated from a huge American air base in Qatar.

Several countries, including the UK have closed their embassies in Tehran.

Iran's airspace to commercial flights was closed for several hours overnight.

These are the live images tracking flights across the region.

Inside Iran itself, figures from one of the human rights groups suggest that more than 3,000 people have been killed in the recent protests.

The funeral of a teenage protester in the west of Iran.

More than 2,400 anti government demonstrators have been killed in a crackdown by the authorities, according to a US based rights group.

Leaving President Trump weighing up whether to take military action against the regime.

But just as signals were multiplying, an attack might be imminent.

We were told that the killing in Iran is stopping.

It's stopped stopping and there's no plan for executions or an execution or executions.

Does this mean military action is now off the table against Iran?

We're going to watch and see what the process is.

Iran had closed its airspace fearing an attack.

The US And UK have pulled some military personnel from this base in Qatar in order to ensure their safety.

The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice for several destinations popular with British tourists, including Turkey, Egypt and Cyprus, due to what it calls a heightened risk of regional tension.

And there have been fears for the life of Irfan Sultani, the owner of a clothes shop who has become the face of the protests against the Iranian government.

His family says he's been sentenced to death, but that the execution has been suspended.

The judiciary says he hasn't been given the death penalty.

In an interview with Fox News, Iran's foreign minister insisted there were no plans for hangings, suggesting Tehran may be heeding President Trump's warning.

Although we don't have any positive experience from the United States, supporters of the Iranian regime have been on the streets for a mass funeral.

The coffins carrying members of the security forces and others linked to the government killed in the last few days of bloodshed.

We could be on the precipice of history where an evil regime falls, or we could see them continue to kill their way through survival, killing their own people.

So the president is monitoring the situation after the protest.

Is President Trump trying to buy more time to move additional military assets into the region?

Is he having second thoughts, or is he just trying to preserve the element of surprise?

Our correspondent John Sudworth is in Jerusalem, and John's been looking at the impacts across the region.

Well, Israel considers Iran to be its arch rival, of course, Kasha, a malign regional influence and existential threat.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of Israel standing shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people in their fight for freedom.

But that said, there have been reports in the Israeli press in recent days that the Israeli government, seeing now US Military action as increasingly likely, has been urging caution.

You know, there are obviously unpredictable risks with military action.

A concern perhaps, that the Ayatollah's grip on Tehran is not quite as weak as the protests may have led us to believe.

And the concern that, you know, a bombing campaign could have the opposite of the desired effect and end up rallying the Iranian people to the flag.

Now, obviously, as we heard in Simon's piece there, we're getting mixed messages out of Washington.

These latest comments from President Trump suggesting that perhaps America may now be prepared to wait.

Is that a result of is the concerns being raised by Israel and not to mention, of course, other Gulf allies of America who may be concerned about the unpredictable risks of military action?

She's chair of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Iran, and

she's been following developments there and also Donald Trump's position.

So by Monday, he said he's going to have negotiations with the regime then on Wednesday.

So yesterday morning, we had his idea to increase tariffs against countries that help Iran with the sanctions circumvention, which I actually think was a pretty smart move.

Then we had this announcement of he's going to come for the help of protesters.

And the sound bite that we heard from him saying that he was being assured there are no more killings, there are no more executions, frankly said to me, this sounds like Iranian regime properly.

What I hear from inside Iran, the few international phone calls that people can make, we still don't have Internet connectivity, but

people can make phone calls, is that people are either burying their family members, because really, the deaths are in the thousands or they are locked into their homes because there are snipers on all corners, and

So if ever they meet groups of two or three people, they instantly start shooting.

Of course, we can't verify that, but that's.

That's the kind of information I get from trusted sources inside Iran by phone calls.

And I don't know where Trump gets his information from.

In terms of next steps, we know that Reza Pahlavi has been very vocal about what is going on.

But it's interesting that he has been describing himself very much as the crown prince.

Prince in order to disassociate himself from the Shah, because, of course, that was overthrown with a revolution, and

that's why we have this Islamic regime there.

What do you make of his potential for being a possible opposition leader?

Is living outside of Iran, which is why he can be very vocal, and

he was clearly instrumental in bringing people to the streets on the last weekend.

at the moment, I mean, everybody's trying to bring down this regime, if ever, we are, if ever, Iranians are in the position to discuss about the transition, I think this transition will be very, very difficult, and

Besides Reza Pahlavi, there are a number of other political opposition figures, a number of human rights figures.

Many of them are at the moment inside Iran.

Or they are even in Evin and other prisons, which is why also they are just not as visible as Pahlavi.

But that doesn't mean that the transition wouldn't need them.

And so in terms of the pressure that the international community is putting on Iran, we know that the European Union has put sanctions on Iran due to its human rights abuses.

Also nuclear proliferation activities, military support from Russia's war against Ukraine.

And I just wonder in terms of what is left, what options the international community has in order to support the Iranian people who, as you say, are losing their lives in their thousands.

I would say at the moment, there are four concrete things that we could still work on.

I'm very frustrated that we still didn't get that, is the listing of the Revolutionary Guard as a terror organization.

I mean, we see these pictures, how they're terrorizing their own People.

And we also know how they're terrorizing the whole region.

There is not one conflict in the Middle east in which the Revolutionary Guard is not escalating and making everyone's life very miserable.

So we really need to put them on the terror list.

And I think kaia Kallas needs to become public now about which member states are blocking so that we can increase the pressure on them.

Because clearly the population all over Europe does not accept this blocking anymore of the terrorists.

The second issue is Internet communication.

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Donald Trump told 'killing has stopped' in Iran after violent protest crackdown | BBC News

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