Trump now says he won't militarily intervene in Iran

by · UPI

Jan. 16 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump said Friday he "convinced himself" to stop military intervention in Iran amid widespread protests throughout the country.

"Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself," Trump told reporters as he was leaving for Florida.

There was an intense campaign to lobby the president not to intervene from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called Trump to discuss the matter, CNN reported. Trump said part of the reason was that Iran had said it wouldn't execute protesters.

The Defense Department was preparing to send more U.S. forces to the Middle East, NBC reported Thursday evening.

"They were going to hang over 800 people yesterday, and I greatly respect the fact that they canceled that," Trump told CNN Friday.

Iran said on Thursday that it never planned to execute those detained in the protests.

Iran's exiled former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi wants Trump to follow through on military intervention. He said the United States should conduct a "surgical strike" on the regime's "paramilitary assets" to weaken Iran's government, he told reporters.

"President Trump did say that if the regime was to hit the Iranian people hard, they will face serious consequences," said Pahlavi, the son of the late shah of Iran who was forced out in 1979. "The Iranian people have taken him as a man of his word."

Protests began in late December against the falling currency and rising prices. Human rights groups now say the death toll is at 3,400.

This week in Washington

Left, to right, Greenland Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Motzfeldt, Denmark Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, meet in the office of Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, for a meeting with members of the Senate Arctic Caucus in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Wednesday. President Donald Trump maintains that he wants the United States to control Greenland. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

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