Trump Rejects Iran’s War Reparations Demand, Demands Compensation From Tehran

US President Donald Trump on Monday scoffed at Iran’s demand for compensation over devastation caused by US and Israeli bombardment over the past five months, instead demanding that Tehran pay compensation for Americans killed or seriously wounded in conflicts involving Iran-backed groups.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the US ends its blockade of Iranian ports, lifts economic sanctions, releases Iran’s frozen assets and pays compensation for war damage. The competing compensation demands come as Iran keeps the reopening of the key waterway conditional on US concessions, while its closure keeps energy prices a major focus of US politics ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Trump demands compensation from Iran

Trump’s remarks followed Baghaei’s statement that Iran would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz unless Washington met Tehran’s conditions.

“It is up to the U.S. side to stop and make amends for its illegal and destructive actions,” Baghaei said.

Iran has demanded compensation for damage caused by the US and Israeli bombardment, along with an end to the blockade of its ports, the lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets. Trump said Iran’s negotiators had not raised the issue of reparations until now.

Trump said he was instead seeking compensation from Iran for Americans killed or wounded in attacks and conflicts over several decades, adding that he wanted “compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts.”

The US government has blamed Iran-backed militants for the deaths and injuries of hundreds of Americans. They include 241 US military personnel killed in the 1983 bombing of a Marine compound in Beirut and at least 603 US troops who died in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.

Trump also said Tehran should compensate the families of Iranian protesters who were killed.

“I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump said in his social media post on Monday.

According to AP, roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war. The closure has kept energy prices a major focus of US politics ahead of the November midterm elections.

Iran’s supreme leader calls for unity

Iran is also facing economic hardship and sanctions stemming from its war with the United States, amid apparent tensions among the country’s leaders.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had called for “unity and cohesion” during a meeting that lasted nearly seven hours.

Pezeshkian described the meeting in an interview with Iranian state television. He did not say when or where it took place.

According to AP, Pezeshkian told state-run IRIB that he and Khamenei discussed “people’s livelihoods, the state of the market, employment, people’s housing,” as well as “problems that are now being created as a result of the (U.S.) sanctions.”

Pezeshkian said Khamenei’s emphasis on unity was the most important part of the discussion.

“All of the enemy’s plans are aimed at creating division,” Pezeshkian said. “What we have to do is prevent divisions from emerging.”

It was only the second time Pezeshkian has said he met the new supreme leader since Khamenei was appointed in March following a US-Israeli strike that killed his father.

Khamenei, who is believed to have been wounded in the same attack, has not appeared in public since then.

Iran appoints former Revolutionary Guard leader to top security post

Iran on Sunday appointed Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Khamenei, to head the powerful Supreme National Security Council.

Rezaei, 71, commanded Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard from 1981 to 1997, a period that included Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s. The hard-liner last week threatened American forces with “serious risks and casualties” if the US did not lift its blockade of Iranian ports.

Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who will become a political adviser to Khamenei.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, wrote that Rezaei appears willing to negotiate with the US to “secure Iran’s maximalist aims, including control of the Strait of Hormuz,” but has also been “unwilling to present any Iranian concessions”.

Israel declares Taybeh a closed military zone

In the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military on Monday declared the Christian-majority town of Taybeh a closed military zone.

The move is intended to keep Israeli settlers and other non-residents out of the town, which has faced arson, vandalism and incursions by settlers onto private and village property.

The military said Palestinian residents and journalists would be allowed to enter unless soldiers determine that their presence poses a threat. It also said troops would detain suspects and disperse gatherings to maintain order.

AP reported that the designation follows months of the Israeli army and police struggling to maintain order across the territory.

At least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in 2026, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Health Ministry.

Houthi attack on Yemen’s Red Sea town kills seven

In Yemen, Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked the Red Sea port town of Mokha, which is controlled by government forces, on Sunday, killing seven people and injuring 30, according to Yemen’s Defense Ministry.

Four military personnel and three civilians were killed, the ministry said.

Clashes continued on Monday near the village of Taiz. The Houthi group said a 13-year-old child was killed by artillery shelling and another child was injured.

The attack on Mokha is part of a major wave of Houthi strikes on Yemeni military positions and areas held by the Saudi-backed government since a 2022 truce.

AP reported that the attack comes as threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have renewed focus on the Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at its southern tip.