Tehran promised to halt executions but secretly continued killing protesters while misleading Washington about willingness to negotiate on missiles and terror proxies, sources reveal.
Iran has deceived the United States at least twice to prevent strikes and reach talks in Oman, according to two diplomatic sources, one of them from the region. During the first weeks of January, as the US prepared for a strike and began advancing its forces toward the Gulf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian conveyed messages to the Americans, including a promise that they would respond to initial American demands to avoid a strike. The Americans first demanded a halt to the massacre of protesters and the prevention of the expected executions there.
Araghchi and Pezeshkian pledged that there would be no executions, and President Trump presented this as an achievement on January 14 that led to postponing the decision to launch a strike. "We were told that the killing in Iran has stopped and there is no plan for executions, or for an execution, or for executions – that's what I was told based on reliable authority."
However, according to intelligence information that reached several intelligence agencies in the West, including the Mossad and the British and German agencies, the executions continued, but efforts were made to conceal them. Instead of hanging protesters who were caught in city squares, they were shot or strangled in custody, and their families were told they died in the protests, even though there is evidence they were arrested alive. According to estimates, this method resulted in thousands of executions, separate from the tens of thousands killed during the dispersal of protests. In addition, the West continuously receives reports about the ongoing suppression of protests and demonstrations breaking out in rural cities, and about mass arrests.
The second story is no less serious. Iran conveyed a message to the Americans through Turkey that it was ready to open negotiations with the US "for comprehensive discussion of all disputes." The Americans demanded details, and according to diplomatic sources, Iran confirmed it would agree to discuss not only the nuclear issue but also long-range missiles and the support and maintenance of terror organizations dependent on it – Hezbollah, the Houthis, the militias in Syria and Iraq, and, of course, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (Read More)
