Recasts, updates throughout with new details.
US president Donald Trump said Wednesday afternoon that the Iranian government ended its violent crackdown against nationwide protests — a statement that may mean he does not feel compelled to order air strikes against Iran.
"We've been told that the killing in Iran is stopping," Trump told reporters gathered at the White House for an unrelated event. "It's stopped. It's stopping. And there's no plan for executions."
Trump has demanded that Tehran put an end to the crackdown or face possible US intervention. The Trump administration mulled possible air strikes. Earlier today, the US military began to partially evacuate military personnel from the Al Udeid air force base in Qatar, according to the Qatari government.
But Trump has not explained how US strikes would help the protesters and has not articulated any other US strategic goal in Iran.
"The end game is to win," Trump told CBS News on Tuesday. "I like winning."
A statement that Iran decided to refrain from executing protesters or stopped violently suppressing them cannot be immediately verified, a fact Trump acknowledged.
"We'll find out what that all means," he said.
Al Udeid came under a missile attack from Iran in June, following the US bombing raid against key Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran at the time signaled it was planning to retaliate symbolically, giving the US and Qatar sufficient notice to evacuate the air base. Qatar's LNG and energy facilities did not suffer any damage in the June attack.
The US has multiple air force, naval and army resources across the Middle East. But the two aircraft carrier groups that were in the region in June and provided crucial air support in the brief Iran-Israel war are no longer in the region. The Pentagon moved one of the aircraft carrier groups to the Caribbean, where it played a role in the military operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
