Donald Trump says eight female Iranian prisoners have been spared from death after he pleaded for their release ahead of ceasefire talks.
The US President announced on Truth Social: ‘Very good news! I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed.
‘Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison. I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution.’
The eight women, who were featured in a photo he shared on Truth Social yesterday, had been sentenced to death for protesting against the regime earlier this year.
The announcement of their apparent releases and cancellation of their executions comes as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US continue.
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Earlier today, Iran fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the ongoing threat to global energy supplies and complicating efforts to bring the US and Iran together for talks to end the war.
The attacks, which Iranian media said were carried out by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, came after Trump said the US would indefinitely extend the ceasefire with Iran, due to expire on Wednesday.
But Trump said the US would continue to blockade Iranian ports, and the attacks reinforced the dangers to traffic in the strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas pass in peacetime.
That means that even if the ceasefire largely holds – and Iran and the US do not resume major attacks – the war will continue to weigh heavily on the global economy.
The longer the Strait remains closed, the more severe and widespread the effects will be – and the longer it will take the economy to bounce back.
Iran has offered no formal acknowledgement of Trump’s extension, but an Iranian diplomat said talks would not resume until the blockade is lifted.
Iran opened fire on a container ship in the strait on Wednesday morning, and a second was attacked a short time later, according to the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre.
Iranian state television later reported that the ships were in the Revolutionary Guard’s custody and being taken to Iran.
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