Anti-regime protests in Iran appear to slow as Trump reportedly still weighs ordering strikes while increasing military presence

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s apparent decision against attacking the Iranian regime on Wednesday, media reports suggest that he is still considering ordering military action and the U.S. military is strengthening its presence in the region. 

Meanwhile in Iran, information available despite the ongoing internet shutdown suggests that the protests have slowed in recent days under the weight of a bloody crackdown that has left thousands of protesters dead. 

The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday, citing multiple sources, that Trump could still decide to order military strikes against the regime.  

This was confirmed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who told reporters on Thursday that “all options remain on the table,” adding that Trump continues to monitor the situation, and reiterating that there would be “grave consequences” if the regime continued killing protesters. 

Trump said on Wednesday that this had “stopped” and that planned executions had been canceled. The White House said on Thursday that 800 executions were averted. 

Nevertheless, American media said that the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group had been ordered from the South China Sea to the Middle East, a voyage estimated to take around a week. 

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the voices counseling President Donald Trump to postpone a strike in Iran. The Prime Minister’s Office did not confirm the report, but Israeli media said Trump and Netanyahu spoke by phone on Wednesday.

“The feeling was that Trump was going to strike,” a source told the Jerusalem Post, while another declined to disclose information about the phone call but noted that “respect[s] Trump's decision.” 

"Trump postponed an attack after strike options presented to the president were deemed unlikely to decisively cause the collapse of the Iranian regime while sparking a larger regional conflict", U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal. 

The officials said that the U.S. would first need to bolster its forces in the region to enable a more decisive strike as well as defend its assets and allies in the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. would continue to monitor the situation in Iran. 

A U.S. source familiar with the situation told Axios that “everyone knows the president keeps his finger over the button.” 

The Iranian regime has now kept the internet shut off across the country for over seven days, making it difficult to assess the situation on the ground. 

Several outlets, including the New York Times and the British Guardian, cited sources who had managed to connect to the outside world saying that protests have subsided, at least in the capital Tehran, in recent days. 

They said that the massive military presence on the streets, reportedly including troops drawn from Iran’s proxy militias in Iraq, as well as the repeated threats of executions, deterred many people from protesting. 

Regime authorities reportedly also sent text messages warning citizens not to let their children join the protests, including explicit threats that they could be killed. 

An Iranian who is living in the United Arab Emirates told the New York Times about the situation after she received a call from her mother in Iran: “The fear has kept some people confined to their homes.”