US President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Iran pay compensation for deaths and injuries linked to attacks and conflicts over decades, after Tehran itself called for compensation from Washington as part of any deal to end the war.
“It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday, accusing Tehran of killing and gravely wounding people through roadside bombs and other conflicts.
Trump’s Compensation Demand
Trump said any future negotiations with Iran must include compensation for those killed and wounded in attacks he attributes to Tehran and its allies.
He specifically cited the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors, as well as “thousands of others” killed in combat.
“For all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by General Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat,” he wrote.
The US president also called for compensation for the families of protesters he claimed Iran had killed over the past 50 years.
Trump further referred to 52,000 deaths over the past five months, without providing further details in his post, and said he had instructed his representatives to make compensation part of “any, and all, future negotiations”.
Iran’s Demand
The demand came after Iran set preconditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war damages, complicating efforts to reach a deal over the vital waterway.
Iran’s security chief, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, laid out a list of demands on Saturday, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq”.
He also called for an end to the US naval blockade of Iran, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said talks with Oman on alternative shipping routes through the Strait were in their “final stages”, but stressed that reopening the waterway remained conditional on Washington meeting Tehran’s demands.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei defended the position on Monday, saying the US had “no moral or legal standing” to complain about the Strait remaining closed.
(With inputs from agencies)