Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. John is flying solo this week as Rishi enjoys some much-deserved time off, but he’s received some assistance from his fantastic FP colleague Christina Lu.

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: Trump appears to back down on striking Iran, NATO allies rally around Greenland, and phase 2 of Trump’s Gaza plan (sort of) begins.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Situation Report. John is flying solo this week as Rishi enjoys some much-deserved time off, but he’s received some assistance from his fantastic FP colleague Christina Lu.

Alright, here’s what’s on tap for the day: Trump appears to back down on striking Iran, NATO allies rally around Greenland, and phase 2 of Trump’s Gaza plan (sort of) begins.

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have backed away from taking military action against Iran—for the moment, at least—for its brutal, deadly crackdown on anti-government protests. Trump threatened to hit Iran hard if it continued to kill protesters but kept moving the goalposts even as reports of massacres trickled through a communications blackout imposed by the Iranian government.

The protests, which began in late December and were perhaps the largest in the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, have seemingly been squashed. Trump alluded to this in comments on Wednesday. The “killing has stopped,” Trump said, adding that Iran had also called off planned executions of detained protesters. Some estimates have placed the death toll from the crackdown as high as 3,000, with more than 16,000 people arrested.

Late on Wednesday, there were still various signs that a U.S. strike could be impending—including a precautionary evacuation of some U.S. personnel from key bases in the region. By Thursday morning, however, the prospect of a kinetic strike appeared to have fizzled out—along with the demonstrations. Iran on Thursday reopened its airspace after a short-lived closure announced the day prior, in an indication that Tehran wasn’t expecting a U.S. attack.

The protests ending and Iran apparently holding off on executions of protesters “have given [Trump] an out,” Gregory Brew, an Iran analyst with Eurasia Group, told SitRep.

Trump also faced pressure from Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar not to move forward with strikes over concerns that such a move would contribute to regional instability and hurt their interests. Qatar is home to Al Udeid, the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East,........

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