President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran has decided against executing eight women it originally planned to kill on Wednesday night and would release four of them while giving one-month prison sentences to the other four.
Trump, who called on the regime to release the women on Tuesday, shared the development in a Truth Social post.
“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,” he wrote.
“I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he added.
The Lawfare Project identifies the eight women as Bita Hemmati, Ghazal Ghalandari, Golnaz Naraghi, Venus Hossein Nejad, Panah Movahedi, Ensieh Nejati, Mahboubeh Shabani, and Diana Taher Abadi.
Iran’s reversal of course marks a positive development after plans for a second round of peace discussions in Islamabad, Pakistan, between the United States and Iran failed to materialize on Tuesday, with the original two-week ceasefire deadline approaching. Vice President JD Vance was expected to lead U.S. talks, but Tuesday came and went without him, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are setting out for Pakistan.
Trump said Tuesday afternoon that, considering the Iranian government is “seriously fractured,” he was extending the ceasefire until Iran can come forth with a “unified proposal.”
While speaking with reporters on Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “has not set a firm deadline to receive an Iranian proposal,” contrary to some reporting.
Earlier in the afternoon, CBS News reported that Iran “maintains more military capabilities than the White House or Pentagon has publicly admitted, according to multiple U.S. officials with knowledge of intelligence on the matter.”
Leavitt pushed back on the report, writing in a post on X that “The legacy media is doing PR for the Iranian regime… again.”
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