US President Donald Trump speaks earlier than signing an govt order calling for extra analysis and suppleness on vaccines, within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, DC, on August 10, 2026.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump mentioned Monday that Iran ought to pay reparations for what he labeled “the injury they’ve executed” over the previous half a century.
“They requested for reparations, you may say, or they requested for cash for the injury that we have executed, and I mentioned that is a good suggestion, properly we’ll ask for cash for the injury they’ve executed over a 50-year interval,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace.
He added that compensation might be utilized to pay damages for U.S. personnel killed or wounded within the Center East, in addition to to the households of protesters killed in a crackdown on mass unrest by the Iranian regime this yr.
“If there’s damages to be paid, I believe Iran ought to pay these damages,” he mentioned.
Oil costs jumped on Tuesday, with world benchmark Brent crude oil futures including 2.5% to commerce at $89.89 per barrel, whereas U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures have been final seen 2.9% larger at $84.49.
Individually, the president mentioned in a Reality Social submit on Monday that he was “demanding compensation from Iran.”
“It’s an fascinating concept as a result of now I’m likewise demanding compensation from Iran,” he mentioned, pointing to civilian and navy deaths and casualties. “I’ve instructed my representatives to place this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations.”
U.S. and Iran commerce reparation calls for
Trump’s reparations demand has launched a brand new sticking level after Iran laid out its personal situations for reopening the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, an important waterway that carried roughly a fifth of the world’s oil earlier than the battle.
Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, secretary of Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council, mentioned Saturday the strait will not reopen till Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws American forces from the area, pays battle reparations and releases frozen Iranian belongings. The council additionally referred to as for an finish to U.S. assaults on Iran’s regional allies.
Iran’s overseas ministry on Tuesday pushed again on the financial entrance. The spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei responded to the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s claims that U.S. sanctions have been “suffocating” Iran.
He mentioned that Washington opts for sanctions at any time when diplomacy fails and escalates them once they do not work — a sample he mentioned has grow to be much less a “coverage” than a “compulsive habit.”
Hormuz deal hopes fade
Trump additionally mentioned Monday that the U.S. Navy had swept the Strait of Hormuz away from mines and now holds “100%” management of the waterway, with reparations rising as the newest flashpoint between Washington and Tehran.
“It is open now,” he advised reporters on the White Home, including that the U.S. was “the one one which has management of the Strait of Hormuz proper now.”
Iranian officers have insisted that the Strait of Hormuz would stay closed till the U.S. agrees to its calls for together with lifting their naval blockade, whereas its discussions with Oman over a delivery association wouldn’t result in the waterway being absolutely reopened.
Trump has signaled that he was ready to let the mounting financial misery take its toll on Iran reasonably than launch additional navy strikes.
The deadlock leaves Washington treating its naval presence as a everlasting fixture guaranteeing entry, whereas Tehran treats that very same presence as the first impediment to normalizing site visitors. Iran has insisted that it wouldn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz so long as the U.S. continues to blockade its ports.
Vitality provide disruptions stay a key market concern, with tanker site visitors by means of the strait nonetheless subdued, mentioned Lloyd Chan, senior forex analyst at MUFG Financial institution in Singapore, noting that Brent costs stay means above above pre-conflict ranges.
Whereas periodic flare-ups stay attainable, a full-blown regional battle remains to be not the bottom case, Chan added.
