Trump demands compensation from Iran as talks on Strait of Hormuz continue

United States President Donald Trump has demanded compensation from Iran for those he claimed were killed by the country after Tehran conditioned the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz on receiving war reparations from Washington.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that his administration was going to seek payment for “50 years” of damages caused by Iran, framing the move as a direct response to Tehran’s claims.

Tehran has said it will not open the Strait of Hormuz – through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the US-Israel war on Iran – unless Washington agrees to pay war reparations and end sanctions.

The Iranian demands were largely in line with the terms of an interim peace agreement signed in June, which has since broken down over a dispute on control over the strait.

Talks between Iran and Oman over the waterway, which separates the two countries, are ongoing, but Trump’s new demands risk complicating efforts to reopen the maritime passage.

“They asked for reparations, you might say. Or they asked for money for the damage that we’ve done. I said that’s a good idea,” he told reporters. “Well, we’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period.”

The payments would cover deaths among US forces in the region as well as civilian protesters in Iran, he said, claiming that 52,000 people have been killed in Iran in the past four months. Tehran says some 3,117 people died in antigovernment protests that swept the country in January, prior to the launch of the US-Israel war.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) in February reported about 7,000 deaths, including 6,500 protesters.