President Donald Trump on Monday dismissed Iran’s demand for reparations over damage caused by American and Israeli strikes during the past five months, calling the request an idea Iranian negotiators had never previously raised, and responded with his own demand that Tehran pay for decades of attacks that killed and wounded Americans.
Trump’s dismissive response, posted on Truth Social, came after Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Iran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States meets its own set of conditions, including ending its naval blockade of Iranian ports, lifting sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets and paying compensation for war damage. “It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Baghaei said.
Trump said Iran’s compensation demand had never come up in any prior negotiations or meetings between the two countries. He said he was now demanding compensation from Iran for people killed or gravely wounded in attacks involving roadside bombs and other conflicts over the years, including the deaths of those aboard the USS Cole and thousands of others killed in combat, according to his post.
What We Know So Far
The United States has for decades attributed the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Americans to Iran backed militants, including a 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. military personnel at a Marine compound in Beirut and the deaths of at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Trump said he also wants Iran to compensate the families of Iranian protesters killed by their own government over the years, citing an unverified figure of tens of thousands killed over five decades, including what he described as 52,000 killed in the past five months alone. That figure has not been independently confirmed.
“I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump wrote.
Iran’s demands, laid out by Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, call for the United States to never again threaten or insult Iran, to permanently end fighting involving Iran’s allies in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Iraq, to lift its naval blockade and withdraw military forces from around Iran, to pay damages from both the current conflict and a prior war last year, to lift sanctions, and to unconditionally release Iran’s frozen assets abroad.
Ali Nikzad, deputy speaker of Iran’s Parliament, said Monday that Iran’s position would not change, telling state broadcaster IRIB that reopening the strait has no military solution and that other countries must accept a new regional order. The competing demands threaten to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed even as Iran appeared close to finalizing a limited deal with Oman that would reopen a narrow passage for some vessels without restoring normal traffic through the waterway.
The closure of the strait, through which roughly one fifth of the world’s traded oil once passed before the war, has kept energy prices a significant issue in U.S. politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Other Mideast Developments
Iran’s supreme leader calls for unity amid signs of division
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is calling for unity and cohesion as the country faces economic hardship and sanctions tied to its war with the United States. Pezeshkian described a nearly seven hour meeting with Khamenei in which they discussed living conditions, employment, housing and the effects of sanctions, though he did not specify when or where the meeting took place. “All of the enemy’s plans are aimed at creating division,” Pezeshkian said, adding that preventing internal division was the central takeaway from the meeting.
It was only the second time Pezeshkian has said he met with Khamenei since he was appointed supreme leader in March, following a U.S. Israeli strike that killed his father and reportedly wounded Khamenei himself. Khamenei has not appeared in public since that attack.
Iran names new security council leader
Iran appointed Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Khamenei, to lead its Supreme National Security Council on Sunday, replacing Zolghadr, who will become a political adviser to the supreme leader. Rezaei commanded Iran’s Revolutionary Guard from 1981 to 1997, a period spanning the Iran Iraq war, and last week threatened American forces with serious risks and casualties if the United States did not lift its blockade of Iranian ports.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington based think tank, wrote that Rezaei appears willing to negotiate with the United States to secure Iran’s broader strategic goals, including control over the Strait of Hormuz, while remaining unwilling to offer any actual concessions.
Israel declares closed military zone in West Bank town
Israel’s military said Monday it had designated Taybeh, a Christian majority town in the occupied West Bank, a closed military zone intended to keep out Israeli settlers and other non residents. The army said Palestinian residents and journalists would generally be permitted to remain unless soldiers determine their presence poses a threat, and that troops would detain suspects and disperse gatherings to maintain order.
The designation follows months of arson, vandalism and settler incursions onto private and village property in the town. It comes amid continued violence across the West Bank, where the Ramallah based Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in 2026.
Houthi attack on Yemeni port town kills seven
Yemen’s Iran backed Houthi rebels attacked the government controlled Red Sea port town of Mokha on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring 30 others, according to Yemen’s Defense Ministry, which said four military personnel and three civilians died in the attack. Clashes continued Monday near the village of Taiz, where the Houthi group said a 13 year old child was killed by artillery shelling and another child was injured.
The attack represents one of the largest waves of Houthi strikes on Yemeni government held positions since a 2022 truce, and comes as broader threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have drawn renewed attention to the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb Strait at its southern end.
Why This Matters
The dueling reparations demands from Washington and Tehran illustrate how far apart the two sides remain despite reported progress on a narrower, temporary shipping arrangement through Oman. By introducing his own compensation claims covering decades of attacks rather than just the current five month conflict, Trump has effectively raised the stakes of any final settlement, making a comprehensive resolution more complicated even if the narrower Oman brokered shipping deal moves forward.
The broader pattern across the region, including apparent internal tension within Iran’s leadership, a hardline appointment to its security council, expanding Israeli military control measures in the West Bank, and intensified Houthi attacks in Yemen, suggests the conflict’s effects are spreading across multiple fronts rather than narrowing toward resolution. Rezaei’s appointment in particular signals a harder line within Iran’s negotiating posture, given his combination of willingness to talk paired with an unwillingness to offer concessions, according to outside analysts.
What Happens Next
Negotiators are continuing work on the narrower Iran Oman shipping arrangement even as both Washington and Tehran hold firm on incompatible demands for a full resolution. Whether Trump’s newly stated reparations demand becomes a formal part of future negotiations, as he has instructed his representatives to pursue, remains to be seen.
Continued instability across the region, from the West Bank to Yemen’s Red Sea coast, is likely to complicate any broader diplomatic push to resolve the underlying conflict between the United States and Iran, even if narrower agreements on shipping continue to advance.
Reporting drawn from the Associated Press and the New York Post, citing statements from President Donald Trump, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s Parliament, Israel’s military, Yemen’s Defense Ministry and the Institute for the Study of War.