Trump Demands Iran Pay Compensation for Americans Killed in Attacks

WASHINGTON —

President Trump said Monday that Iran owes compensation to the United States for people killed in attacks linked to Tehran, a direct response to Iran's own demand for war reparations, The Hill reported.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he noticed Iranian officials were seeking payment for damage from what he called the "last five month Military Conflict," which he said started because Iran would not give up a nuclear weapon. He called Iran's request "an interesting idea" and said he would turn it around.

"I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts," Trump wrote, according to CBS News.

The president said that list should include the 17 U.S. sailors killed in the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, along with what he described as thousands of others killed in combat. He also said Iran should pay the families of protesters killed inside Iran over the past 50 years, and specifically cited 52,000 people he said had been killed in the past five months. Trump said he has told his negotiators to make compensation part of any future talks with Tehran.

Iran ties payment to Hormuz

The compensation dispute is tangled up with a bigger standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping route Iran has kept closed. Iran's Supreme National Security Council said over the weekend that the strait will stay shut until the United States "corrects its behavior," according to a statement from council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr reported by CBS News. The statement demanded that Washington never threaten Iran again, permanently end the war, lift its naval blockade, withdraw its military, pay Iran in full for war damage, lift sanctions and release frozen Iranian assets without conditions.

A partial deal negotiated last week between Iran and Oman was meant to sort out who controls shipping traffic through the strait, giving Iran partial control over incoming vessels. The Hill reported that little progress has followed and some have viewed the arrangement as a concession to Tehran.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that the United States is only "semi-negotiating" with Iran and said he is content to let economic pressure build. "We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," he said, adding that Iran "is in very bad shape."

Wider conflict simmers

The compensation fight comes against a backdrop of continued regional violence. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen struck the government-held port city of Mocha twice within 24 hours over the weekend, CBS News reported, raising fears the conflict could spread to Red Sea shipping lanes as well. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu separately rejected a U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan on Sunday and said Israeli forces would remain in Gaza until Hamas disarms.