A personal message from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to US special envoy Steve Witkoff that Iran would not execute hundreds of anti-regime protesters helped restrain US President Donald Trump last week from ordering military strikes on Iran, according to a Saturday report.

The Washington Post, citing more than a dozen current and former US and Middle East officials, said that last Wednesday, top US security advisers expected Trump to order a strike, after he had vowed to hit Iran over the deaths of protesters in a violent crackdown on anti-government rallies.

Then word then arrived from Witkoff that the Iranian government had canceled the planned execution of 800 people, a senior US official told the Post.

The source, described as close to the administration, said a text from Araghchi to Witkoff “kind of also defused the situation.”

Defense officials had also reportedly explained to Trump that the outcome of a strike was uncertain and that it could destabilize the region, while defense officials worried that the US did not have enough assets in the Middle East to effectively thwart a major Iranian response to a strike.

“Would a strike have resulted in regime change? The answer is clearly ‘no,'” said the source. “The negative impact of any attack outweighed any benefit in terms of punishing the regime.”

Several officials told the newspaper that Trump........

© The Times of Israel