Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Iran has “no plans to hang people”, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday when asked about anti-government protests in the Middle Eastern country.
“There are no plans to hang at all,” the foreign minister told Fox News in an interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” “Hanging is out of the question,” he said.
According to the Norway-based Iranian Human Rights Association, hangings are common in Iranian prisons.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday that he would take “very strong action” if Iran starts hanging protesters, but did not elaborate on his comments. “If they hang them up, you’re going to see something,” Trump said.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had been informed that killings in the Iranian government’s crackdown on protests were declining and that he believed there were no plans for mass executions.
Trump has been considering how to respond to the situation in Iran, which is experiencing its largest anti-government protests in years.
Iran engaged in a 12-day war with U.S. ally Israel last year, and its nuclear facilities were bombed by the U.S. military in June this year. Trump has been increasing pressure on Iran’s leaders, including threatening military action.
The protests were one of the most serious tests of the country’s clerical rule since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as they evolved from complaints about severe economic hardship to defiant calls for the overthrow of the entrenched clerical establishment.
HRANA, a US-based human rights group, said it had verified the deaths of 2,403 protesters and 147 government-related personnel so far. HRANA reports that 18,137 people have been arrested so far.
Iran’s government blames foreign sanctions for its economic woes and claims its foreign enemies are interfering in domestic affairs.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)
