JAKARTA - The Attorney General of Iran said US President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he would stop the hanging execution of 800 detained protesters "is absolutely not true."
The total number of deaths from the bloody crackdown on the national protests has risen to at least 5,032, activists say.
Activists fear many more have died. They are struggling to confirm information because the most comprehensive internet blackout in Iran's history has passed two weeks.
Tensions remain high between the United States and Iran as American carrier groups move closer to the Middle East, something Trump likened to an "armada" in his comments to reporters on Thursday night.
Analysts say the increased military strength could give Trump the option of launching an attack, although so far he has avoided it despite repeatedly warning Tehran.
Mass executions of prisoners have become one of his red lines for the use of military force - the other is the killing of peaceful demonstrators.
"Although President Trump seems to have retracted his statement, it is likely that under pressure from regional leaders and realizing that air strikes alone will not be enough to overthrow the regime. Military assets continue to be moved to the region, which indicates that military action may still take place," said the New York-based think tank, the Soufan Center, in an analysis reported by the Associated Press, Saturday, January 24.
Trump has repeatedly said Iran has stopped executing 800 people detained in the protests, without explaining the source of the claim.
On Friday, Iran's chief prosecutor Mohammad Movahedi firmly denied this in comments carried by the judiciary's Mizan news agency.
"This claim is completely wrong; there is no such figure, and the judiciary has never made such a decision," Movahedi said.
His statement suggests Iran's Foreign Ministry, headed by Abbas Araghchi, may have provided the figure to Trump.
Araghchi has a direct line of communication with US envoy Steve Witkoff and has held several rounds of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program with him.
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