United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that he had been told that the killing of protesters in Iran had stopped and that “there is no plan for executions”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said he had been informed “on good authority” that the killings had stopped. However, he provided no details and did not identify his sources, describing them only as important sources “on the other side”, AP reported.

He added that he would later “find out” whether the information was true and said the US would wait and watch how events unfold before deciding on any action.

The US president’s claims came hours before Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News on Wednesday that “there is no plan” to hang people, when asked about the crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests.

“Hanging is out of the question,” he asserted.

This comes a day after Trump told Iranian protesters that help was on the way and warned Tehran of “strong action” when he was asked about potential executions.

The United Nations Security Council is also due to meet on Thursday at the request of the US to discuss the situation in Iran.

There has been widespread unrest in Iran for more than two weeks, with an Iranian official telling Reuters that around 2,000 persons including security personnel, have been killed during the protests.

The protests, which began on December 28, were initially focused on discontent about rising inflation. However, they later expanded in scope as protesters in more than 100 cities demanded an end to clerical rule.

The authorities in Iran have accused the United States and Israel of inciting the unrest.

On January 8, the government snapped internet access and telephone lines, largely cutting off the country from the outside world.

The restrictions were eased on Tuesday, AP reported. However, text messaging services were still down and internet users were only able to connect to government-approved websites locally.