As Iran returned to uneasy calm after a wave of protests that drew a bloody crackdown, a senior hard-line cleric called Friday for the death penalty for detained demonstrators and directly threatened U.S. President Donald Trump — evidence of the rage gripping authorities in the Islamic Republic.

Trump, though, struck a conciliatory note, thanking Iran’s leaders for not executing hundreds of detained protesters, in a further sign he may be backing away from a military strike. Executions, as well as the killing of peaceful protesters, are two of the red lines laid down by Trump for possible action against Iran.

Harsh repression that has left several thousand people dead appears to have succeeded in stifling demonstrations that began Dec. 28 over Iran’s ailing economy and morphed into protests directly challenging the country’s theocracy.

There have been no signs of protests for days in Tehran, where shopping and street life have returned to outward normality, though a week-old internet blackout continued. Authorities have not reported any unrest elsewhere in the country.

“Iran canceled the hanging of over 800 people,” Trump told reporters in Washington, adding that “I greatly respect the fact that they canceled.”

Trump did not clarify who he spoke to in Iran to confirm the state of any planned executions.

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The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday put the death toll at 3,090. The number, which exceeds that of any other round of protest or unrest in Iran in decades and recalls the chaos surrounding the 1979 revolution, continues to rise.

The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran that confirms all reported fatalities.

The AP has been unable to independently confirm the toll. Iran’s government has not provided casualty figures.

In contrast, the sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami carried by Iranian state radio sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including: “Armed hypocrites should be put to death!”

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Khatami, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council long known for his hard-line views, described the protesters as the “butlers” of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “Trump’s soldiers.” He said Netanyahu and Trump should await “hard revenge from the system.”

“Americans and Zionists should not expect peace,” the cleric said.

His fiery speech came as allies of Iran and the United States alike sought to defuse tensions. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Friday to both Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Israel’s Netanyahu, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia had previously kept largely quiet about the protests. Moscow has watched several key allies suffer blows as its resources and focus are consumed by its 4-year-old war against Ukraine, including the downfall of Syria’s former President Bashar Assad in 2024, last year’s U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro this month.

Days after Trump pledged “help is on its way” for the protesters, both the demonstrations and the prospect of imminent U.S. retaliation appeared to have receded. One diplomat told The Associated Press that top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar had raised concerns with Trump that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi urged the U.S. to make good on its pledge to intervene. Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown by Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, said he still believes the president’s promise of assistance.

“I believe the president is a man of his word,” Pahlavi told reporters in Washington. He added that “regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice to carry on the fight.“

“I will return to Iran,” he vowed. Hours later, he urged protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday.

Despite support by diehard monarchists in the diaspora, Pahlavi has struggled to gain wider appeal within Iran. But that has not stopped him from presenting himself as the transitional leader of Iran if the regime were to fall.

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Khatami, the hard-line cleric, also provided the first overall statistics on damage from the protests, claiming 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy places had sustained damage. Another 80 homes of Friday prayer leaders — an important position within Iran’s theocracy — were also damaged, likely underlining the anger demonstrators felt toward symbols of the government.

He said 400 hospitals, 106 ambulances, 71 fire department vehicles, and another 50 emergency vehicles also sustained damage.

Even as protests appeared to have been smothered inside Iran, thousands of exiled Iranians and their supporters have taken to the streets in cities across Europe to shout out their rage at the government of the Islamic Republic.

Amid the continuing internet shutdown, some Iranians crossed borders to communicate with the outside world. At a border crossing in Turkey’s eastern province of Van, a trickle of Iranians crossing on Friday said they were traveling to get around the communications blackout.

“I will go back to Iran after they open the internet,” said a traveler who gave only his first name, Mehdi, out of security concerns.

Also crossing the border were some Turkish citizens escaping the unrest in Iran.

2:02
Trump says Iran killings ‘stopping,’ executions won’t happen

Mehmet Önder, 47, was in Tehran for his textiles business when the protests erupted. He said he laid low in his hotel until it was shut for security reasons, then stayed with one of his customers until he was able to return to Turkey.

Although he did not venture into the streets, Önder said he heard heavy gunfire.

“I understand guns, because I served in the military in the southeast of Turkey,” he said. “The guns they were firing were not simple weapons. They were machine-guns.”

In a sign of the conflict’s potential to spill over borders, a Kurdish separatist group in Iraq said it has launched attacks on Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in recent days in retaliation for Tehran’s crackdown on protests.

A representative of the Kurdistan Freedom Party, or PAK, said its members have “played a role in the protests through both financial support and armed operations to defend protesters when needed.” The group said the attacks were launched by members of its military wing based inside Iran.

Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Will Weissert and Darlene Superville in Washington and Serra Yedikardes at the Kapikoy Border Crossing, Turkey, contributed.

“It’s a huge step forward, but a little disappointing at the same time.”

That’s how Stephen Vandervalk, who grows canola near Fort McLeod, Alta. and is also vice-president of the Wheat Growers Association, reacted to news of the preliminary trade deal between Canada and China.

The agreement, announced Friday, following a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Beijing, is expected to slash punishing tariffs on the sale of Canadian agriculture and seafood products to China, part of a tit-for-tat tariff war between the two countries.

It started in the summer of 2024, when Canada announced a 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric automobiles that Ottawa claimed were being dumped on global markets.

China responded in 2025 with tariffs of up to 100 per cent on some Canadian canola products, along with a 25 per cent levy on Canadian pork and seafood products.

The deal announced Friday is expected to result in Beijing slashing duties on canola seed to 15 per cent by March 1, 2026, in return for Canada allowing 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to be sold in Canada at a tariff of just 6.1 per cent. That number will increase to about 70,000 vehicles within five years.

Ottawa also expects to have tariffs on Canadian canola meal, lobsters, crabs and peas reduced or removed from March 1 until at least the end of the year.

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While Vandervalk called the agreement “a huge step forward,” he also expressed “cautious optimism,” saying a 15 per cent tariff on canola meal means Canada could still struggle to be competitive with other countries, like Australia, that can sell the same products to the Chinese market.

He’s also concerned about how Americans will react to the deal because the 100 per cent tariff on Chinese EVs was put in place by both Canada and the U.S. to help protect the North American auto industry.

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“They’re our biggest trading partner for sure, they take almost all of our canola meal.  When you crush canola seed, you get oil, and you get meal. So a huge market is our canola meal and oil and seed everything into the U.S., so it’s for sure much, much larger than China,” said Vandervalk.

“So if we somehow get a little bit of access to China at the expense of having potentially no access to our largest trading partner, we have huge concerns with that,” added Vandervalk.

In an emailed statement, the Canola Council of Canada and Canadian Canola Growers Association called news of the deal on tariffs, “an important milestone in Canada’s trading relationship with China.”

“The Canadian canola industry has been clear since the outset that these tariffs are a political issue requiring a political solution. We are pleased to see significant progress in restoring market access for seed and meal and will continue to build on this development by working to achieve permanent and complete tariff relief, including for canola oil, moving forward,” reads the statement.

Andre Harpe, Chair of the Alberta Canola Producers, who farms near Grand Prairie, Alta., called the tentative agreement “great news.”

“I was up at three o’clock this morning looking at the announcement and I did happen to glance at the prices then and they were up quite a bit. So it was a good response to see from the market,” said Harpe.

“I’m really, really hoping things settle down a little bit, but it’s been a roller-coaster ride. It’s been absolutely terrible. The uncertainty, you know,” added Harpe.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who accompanied the Prime Minister on his trip to China and spoke to Global News from there, was almost euphoric in his reaction to the agreement, calling it “a good day for Canadians.”

“This is very significant. It is going to literally allow billions of dollars of agricultural products of all kinds, whether it’s canola, pulse crops, seafood, to flow again, which was not moving in any way to our second largest trading partner in the world,” said Moe. “So this is an absolute deal of tremendous significance to not only the Canadian agriculture industry, but to the Canadian economy.”

“Not only does this restore trade that was existing, but it definitely provides a very foundation for us build additional trade opportunities with not only a country like China, but many Asian countries in the area,” added Moe.

Federal Conservative labour critic, Kyle Seeback, who represents the riding of Dufferin-Caledon in southern Ontario, the centre of Canada’s automobile manufacturing industry, characterized the trade deal as a double-edged sword.

“I think that if you’re a canola farmer, you’re cautiously optimistic. I think if you are an auto worker in Canada, you’re extremely worried about what this is going to mean for the Canadian auto sector,” said Seeback.

He’s also concerned that, so far, China has only agreed to lower tariffs until the end of 2026.

“We’re dealing with China and China has a history of not being a reliable trading partner,” said Seeback.  “So it’s always dangerous when you make these kinds of deals with China.”

“I think that this is going to come back to be viewed as an absolutely terrible decision to try and enter into a strategic alliance with China,” Seeback added. “Time will tell, but I think the liberals are going to one day deeply regret that they’ve made this decision.”

With files from The Canadian Press.

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