Inside Trump’s Iran warning — and the unexpected pause that followed

On Jan. 13, President Donald Trump warned Iran and told protesters that “help is on its way,” setting expectations of U.S. action. Days later, with no strikes carried out, the pause has become the central question in Washington.

U.S. and regional security experts say the decision was driven by caution, not retreat. A strike risked retaliation against U.S. forces and Israel. 

It also raised questions about who would follow Iran’s leadership and whether intervention would undercut the protest movement Trump appeared to encourage.

Fox News Digital has learned from background conversations with U.S. officials that internal debates over Iran’s post-regime leadership and the lack of a clear successor factored into deliberations over a potential strike. Officials grappled not only with how to hit Iran, but with who would come next.

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Trump raised that uncertainty Jan. 15 when he publicly questioned whether Reza Pahlavi, the Western-backed son of Iran’s ousted shah, could realistically govern after more than four decades in exile. Pahlavi has not been to Iran since his family was forced out during the 1979 revolution.

“He seems very nice, but I don’t know how he’d play within his own country,” Trump told Reuters. 

But Trump had insisted to protesters Jan. 13: “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!… HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Later, he said Iran had agreed to halt its executions, dialing back U.S. tensions with the Islamic Republic.

To be sure, intervention could still come once U.S. assets reach the Middle East. A U.S. aircraft carrier is currently steaming toward the Gulf, having departed the Indo-Pacific Jan. 15 as the threat of conflict reached a fever pitch. 

The pause has nonetheless drawn backlash, as critics argue Trump’s promise that “help is on the way” may have raised expectations or emboldened protesters.

One Iranian citizen who witnessed violence during demonstrations said protesters are “still waiting on United States special forces to act in Iran.” 

“They can come to help us. We can finish the job on the ground,” the Iranian, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said. 

“‘Go forward, help is coming,’ Trump said. The people went forward. They were killed. No help came,” one user wrote on X. 

“Iranian patriots have now waited more than 160 hours for Trump’s promise that ‘HELP IS ON ITS WAY,’” wrote another.

Iran state TV said more than 3,117 people have been killed in recent demonstrations. Other human rights groups place the estimate much higher.

Protests have since subsided from their peak earlier in January due to a brutal crackdown, but anti-regime advocates are “waiting at home for that special moment,” the Iranian said. 

But the leadership question remains unresolved. 

“The big question then becomes what’s the objective — not just militarily, but what’s the political objective in Iran,” said Seth Jones, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Without a clear endgame, he warned, military pressure can create instability without producing a viable outcome.

Others warned that U.S. intervention could have backfired against the protest movement itself. 

“Anything that associates the U.S. with the protesters hurts the protesters,” said Rosemary Kelanic of Defense Priorities, arguing that overt American involvement would make it easier for Tehran to portray demonstrations as foreign-backed and justify a harsher crackdown.

Concerns that the pause damaged U.S. credibility, she added, are overstated. 

“Trump has shown several times quite recently his willingness to use U.S. military force in quite spectacular ways.”

Even limited strikes carried trade-offs. 

“If kinetic, the administration must be wary to not dampen protester morale,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

Civilian casualties or poorly selected targets, he said, could push Iranians “into survival mode” rather than keep them in the streets. Subtler forms of pressure may also fall short. 

“Something too covert, such as in the cyber domain alone, might not be ‘seen’ by protesters,” he said.

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Danny Citrinowicz, a former Israeli military intelligence official who led the Iran desk, said Tehran already has used the pause to its advantage, but only tactically. 

“The regime had two major achievements: cracking down (on) the demonstrations with great use of violence, and postponing the American attack,” he said. “These wins are tactical, but they are very limited.”

Citrinowicz also pushed back on the idea that airstrikes would have reignited protests.

 “Even if you bomb today, it’s not going to push people into the streets,” he said, warning that fear would likely dominate if the regime felt its survival was at stake.

Iranian–American human rights advocates echoed concerns about intervention while stressing that restraint does not have to mean silence. 

“U.S. policy should not require a military intervention in Iran,” said Majid Sadeghpour, political director of the Organization of Iranian American Communities. “Our demand from policymakers in the West is provisional moral and political support — recognition of the Iranian people’s fight to change the regime.”

Decades of foreign interference in the Middle East have left many Iranians wary of U.S. military action, even among those who oppose the government.

“Nothing would replace people walking in the streets of Iran and confronting the IRGC.”

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Inside Iran, authorities have responded with a sweeping crackdown, according to human rights groups and media reports. In addition to killings, security forces have carried out mass arrests, used live ammunition in some areas, and imposed severe internet and connectivity restrictions to prevent protesters from organizing or broadcasting abuses. 

Iranian officials have blamed foreign influence for the unrest, a narrative experts say becomes easier to advance when U.S. leaders publicly hint at involvement.

Zelenskyy blasts global inaction on Iran, claims Europe stuck in ‘Greenland mode’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Thursday that global inaction toward Iran and other authoritarian regimes is fueling mounting security threats, accusing Europe of relying on symbolism instead of real power at a moment of escalating danger.

“Europe still feels more like geography, history, tradition — not a real political force, not a great power,” he said during an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, just after meeting with President Donald Trump on negotiations over the war with Russia. Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia Thursday.

Zelenskyy criticized leaders who talk about standing strong while waiting for others to define the limits.

“Many say, ‘We must stand strong,’ but they want someone else to tell them how long they need to stand strong — preferably until the next election,” Zelenskyy said.

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Without decisive action, he warned, Europe will remain reactive.

“If Europe’s actions don’t scare bad actors, Europe will always be reacting, always catching up,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader also criticized global inaction in Iran amid a mass protest movement against its regime.

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“As for Iran, everyone is waiting to see what America will do,” Zelenskyy said. “And Europe offers almost nothing.”

He warned that refusing to support people fighting for freedom carries long-term consequences, arguing that Western delay repeatedly empowers hostile regimes.

“When you refuse to help people fighting for freedom, the consequences always come back — and they are always negative,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy pointed to Belarus as a warning of what happens when Europe fails to act early. After mass protests against Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in 2020, Western governments declined to intervene decisively. 

Russia later deployed missiles to Belarusian territory, now within range of major European capitals.

“No one helped their people,” Zelenskyy said. “Now Russian missiles are deployed in Belarus.”

He said the continent “still remains in Greenland mode,” pointing to symbolic military gestures that fail to deter adversaries.

“If you send 30 or 40 soldiers to Greenland, what message does that send — to Russia, to China, and even to Denmark?” Zelenskyy asked. “Forty soldiers will not protect anything.”

Zelenskyy said European leaders privately question whether NATO, and especially the United States, would respond decisively if Russia attacked a NATO member state such as Poland.

“To believe that the United States will act — that it will not stand aside and will help,” he said. “But what if it doesn’t? This question is everywhere in the minds of European leaders.”

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Relying on faith rather than preparedness, he warned, is dangerous.

“Faith in a lucky turn of events cannot stop force,” Zelenskyy said.

He warned that Russia’s missile production depends on foreign components, even from those aiding Ukraine.

“Russia would not be able to build ballistic or cruise missiles without critical components from other countries,” Zelenskyy said. “It’s not only China. Russia gets components from companies in Europe, the United States and Taiwan.”

“How many are investing in stability around Taiwan to avoid war?” he asked. “But can Taiwanese companies stop building electronics for Russia’s war?”

“Europe says almost nothing. America says nothing. And Putin makes missiles.”

Cutting off those supply chains, he argued, would be more effective than relying solely on missile defenses.

“It would be cheaper and easier to stop the components than to keep intercepting missiles,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy concluded by framing Ukraine as Europe’s frontline defense, warning that European security is inseparable from Ukraine’s survival.

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“You need Ukraine’s independence too, because tomorrow you may have to defend your own way of life,” he said.

“You can’t build a new world order out of words,” Zelenskyy added. “Only actions build a real order.”

Yale hosts controversial speaker Trita Parsi accused of promoting Iranian regime interests

FIRST ON FOX: Trita Parsi, a controversial figure among the Iranian American community, will be speaking at an event hosted by the John Quincy Adams Society at Yale University on Thursday, sparking concerns as tensions in Iran continue to rise.

Shay Khatiri, a senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute, grew up in Northern Iran and spent time living in the nation’s capital of Tehran. Khatiri didn’t hold back when discussing his view on Parsi’s messaging, telling Fox News Digital the Yale chapter’s speaker faced accusations of lobbying for policies that benefitted the regime. 

“[Parsi] founded this group called the National Iranian American Council, NIAC,” Khatiri explained. “That was really a lobbying group to promote lifting sanctions and what would eventually become the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or the Iran nuclear deal that President Obama reached with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

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“There has been huge suspicion among the Iranian diaspora and broader foreign policy community in Washington, D.C., that Parsi and his group have been lobbying on behalf of unofficially lobbying and promoting the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Khatiri told Fox.

The Yorktown institute fellow went on to explain that he believes the “talking points” used by Parsi are filled with disinformation. 

“[Parsi says that] the protesters are really not that peaceful, and they are violent, and he omits the context that it’s always the Islamic Republic that initiates violence and, defensively, protesters respond to it, or that the protests are really not that cohesive, that they lack a leadership, which is also not true,” Khatiri added. “The protesters have been chanting the name of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the exiled crown prince of Iran.”

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The Quincy Institute pushed back at the backlash, saying the event is an opportunity for “students to come inside and join the conversation.” 

“We’re talking about a single seminar about the Monroe Doctrine and, more generally, about the principles of Realism and Restraint,” Jessica Rosenblum, director of communications at Quincy Institute, told Fox News Digital.

Parsi is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute.

“It is a shame that, rather than engaging in substantive conversations about topics at the forefront of the news, a handful of protesters are resorting to the same cancel culture tactics that most of us had hoped would no longer plague university campuses.”

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The nation of Iran has been under duress since December when protesters rose up against the Iranian regime as the Middle Eastern country faces economic disparity.

The protests turned deadly as reports show Iranian security forces using lethal force against the protesters.

Drawing on accounts from doctors operating in the region, The Sunday Times reports that a reviewed assessment estimates Iranian security forces have killed at least 16,500 protesters and injured more than 330,000.

“Parsi has been saying that if you want to have a new leadership in Iran, there are people within the system you can work with,” Khatiri explained. “Which is, according to the Iranian diaspora and the Iranian protesters, an unacceptable outcome.”

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Yale University did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but the university has also faced criticism over a left-leaning bias that reports and several studies indicate at the Ivy League university.

A January report from Yale Daily News that analyzed the political donations of professors showed that of the 1,099 donations made by professors to federal political campaigns and partisan groups, not one of the donations was made to a Republican. 

Separately, a study by the Buckley Institute found that 27 of the 43 undergraduate departments at the Ivy League school had no Republican faculty members.

“From Obama’s weakness and giveaway of an Iran deal to Biden’s repeated capitulations to the Mullahs, Democrats have repeatedly failed to hold Tehran terror accountable or even stand up for the millions of Iranians fighting for their freedom,” Congressman Darrell Issa told Fox News Digital. 

“This isn’t a close call,” Issa added.

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Last week, President Donald Trump said “it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” and has defended the protests that serve to end the regime.

Fox News Digital reached out to the John Quincy Adams Society at Yale University and Parsi but did not receive responses.

Iran accused of sex assaults on teenage prisoners, while families charged to recover remains of loved ones

Reports have emerged from eyewitnesses in Iran alleging sexual assaults on teenagers held in custody, as well as authorities forcing families of those protesters killed to pay as much as 10 billion rials to recover their bodies.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US) told Fox News Digital Wednesday that the “barbarity continues” across the nation, with prison detainees allegedly being killed and their bodies burned.

The reports come as Iran’s government claimed it had successfully crushed weeks of unrest that swept the country.

Beginning Dec. 28, the protests erupted amid deep public anger over political repression, economic hardship and state violence before rapidly expanding nationwide.

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“The sedition is over now,” Iran’s Prosecutor General Mohammad Movahedi said, according to the judiciary’s Mizan News Agency.

“And we must be grateful, as always, to the people who extinguished this sedition by being in the field in a timely manner,” he added, according to The New York Times.

The regime’s claims emerged on day 25 of the protests with the number of confirmed fatalities reaching 4,902, and the number of deaths still under review standing at 9,387.  

The total number of arrests has risen to 26,541, the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.

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The France-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) also said it received information indicating that some families were forced to pay sums of up to 10 billion rials to recover the bodies of their relatives.

In many cases, funeral ceremonies were held under heavy security control in the hometowns of those killed. 

Some families were reportedly subjected to threats and pressure to falsely attribute responsibility for the killings to protesters.

KHRN further said that two protesters, including a 16-year-old, said they were sexually assaulted by Iranian security forces who detained them in Kermanshah, according to reports.

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Meanwhile, NCRI’s Ali Safavi said eyewitnesses reported that “several young women and men were forced to undress, so the military could see whether they had pellet wounds.”

“There has been barbarity with people who were detained. When they were killed, their bodies were burned,” he added.

Safavi also said clashes continued in multiple cities Tuesday night, including “Kermanshah where protesters and armed units of the IRGC fought in parts of the city.”

“There was the same in Rasht and Mashhad where the people and the regime will not return to the status quo even if the uprisings have slowed down. This is because of the blood of thousands of martyrs on their hands.”

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“The regime is still in power, and it won’t abandon brutal and bloody suppression so there is no pathway to a velvet revolution in Iran.”

“The shoes and sneakers seen left along the sidewalks remind us of the 30,000 MEK members and Iranian prisoners who were hanged during the 1988 massacre based on a fatwa by Khomeini,” Safavi added.

US begins transferring ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq amid security transition

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday it has begun moving ISIS detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraqi-controlled facilities as part of a broader effort to prevent the terror group’s resurgence and maintain long-term security in the region.

CENTCOM said U.S. forces transported 150 ISIS fighters who were being held at a detention facility in Hasakah, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq, with up to 7,000 detainees potentially slated for transfer.

“We are closely coordinating with regional partners, including the Iraqi government, and we sincerely appreciate their role in ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “Facilitating the orderly and secure transfer of ISIS detainees is critical to preventing a breakout that would pose a direct threat to the United States and regional security.”

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The announcement comes one day after Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, said Damascus is prepared to assume security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps.

The State Department said in a 2025 report to Congress that roughly 8,400 ISIS-affiliated detainees from more than 70 countries are being held in detention facilities run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the largest of which is the al-Hol camp.

Barrack helped broker a fragile four-day ceasefire agreement Tuesday between the new interim Syrian government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, and the Kurdish-led SDF, after escalating clashes threatened to spiral further.

The U.S. official said the Trump administration does not seek a long-term military presence in Syria, emphasizing the need instead for a continued focus on defeating remaining ISIS elements.

“The deal integrates SDF fighters into the national military (as individuals, which remains among the most contentious issues), hand over key infrastructure (oil fields, dams, border crossings), and cede control of ISIS prisons and camps to Damascus,” Barrack wrote on X.

“This creates a unique window for the Kurds: integration into the new Syrian state offers full citizenship rights (including for those previously stateless), recognition as an integral part of Syria, constitutional protections for Kurdish language and culture (e.g., teaching in Kurdish, celebrating Nawruz as a national holiday), and participation in governance—far beyond the semi-autonomy the SDF held amid civil war chaos,” he added.

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Syria’s Ministry of Interior said Monday that security forces had recaptured 81 of the 120 ISIS prisoners who escaped from the al-Shaddadi prison in the Hasakah countryside and were continuing efforts to track down the remaining escapees.

The interim government and the SDF have since traded blame over responsibility for the escape, which occurred amid heightened tensions over security arrangements in the region.

Witkoff and Kushner scheduled to meet Putin in Moscow

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said he and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to discuss a potential peace deal that would end the country’s nearly four-year war with Ukraine.

″[There’s been] lots of progress in the last six to eight weeks,” Witkoff told CNBC, referring to a possible peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

When asked about whether he believed Putin would come to a deal to end the war, Witkoff told CNBC that he is optimistic and has a “sense that everybody wants a peace there, that it’s time.”

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A White House official confirmed to Fox News that Kushner and Witkoff will meet with Putin on Thursday in Russia.

A spokesperson with the Kremlin also confirmed the meeting to Russian state media outlet TASS.

“We expect such a meeting tomorrow; it’s on the president’s schedule,” the spokesperson reportedly said. “It will take place tomorrow.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy will reportedly meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday in Davos, according to Axios.

“I think Russia wants to make a deal, I think Ukraine wants to make a deal. I think I can say we are relatively close,” Trump told the crowd at Davos.

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This will not be Witkoff and Kushner’s first meeting with Putin in Moscow. The two held a five-hour meeting with Putin in December, though they were not able to yield any major breakthroughs.

Representatives of the U.S. and Russia held talks in Davos, Switzerland, where world leaders are gathered for the World Economic Forum, according to Reuters, which added that Washington’s envoys also met with Ukrainian and European leaders. Envoys for Putin and Trump said the talks were “very positive” and “constructive.”

“Dialogue is constructive and more and more people understand the fairness of Russian position,” Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said after the talks in Davos, Reuters reported.

Last month, Witkoff and Kushner spoke with Zelenskyy, who expressed optimism after the talks.

“Today we had a very good conversation with President Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and [Jared Kushner]. I thank them for the constructive approach, the intensive work, and the kind words and Christmas greetings to the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable.”

Feb. 24 will mark four years since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine sparked a war that has drawn international attention. Trump has blamed both Putin and Zelenskyy for prolonging the war, saying at various times that one of the two leaders was seemingly not ready to reach a deal.

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While the issue of territory has long been a major sticking point, with Zelenskyy repeatedly opposing any land concessions, Witkoff told CNBC that “land deals” remain on the table.

The Trump administration has worked to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine for over a year. Trump has met with both Zelenskyy and Putin, though those meetings did not appear to make major shifts to the peace process.