US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had agreed not to execute eight women protesters in a sign of respect for him, while officials in Tehran denied the executions had been planned and accused the US president of spreading falsehoods.
“Very good news,” Trump said in a social media post a day after granting a unilateral ceasefire in the war started by the US and Israel on February 28.
Trump said four of the eight women would be released immediately and four would 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,” Trump said.
Iran called the whole issue a fabrication and said Trump was trying to save face.
The US president has been frustrated by Iran’s refusal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas, despite the ceasefire he declared on April 8 and extended on Tuesday.
