Trump Says Iran Must Compensate For Killings Of Americans And Its Own People
President Donald Trump declared that the United States would demand compensation from Iran for all killed American soldiers and Iranian protesters over the "past 50 years," and said this issue will be raised in future negotiations with Tehran.
"I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on August 10.
He said that the issue of compensation has not been raised in any of the negotiations or meetings since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, but that "it is an interesting idea because now 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.”
“Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years," including what he said were “the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.”
There has been a surge of executions in recent weeks, and rights groups have documented more than 6,000 deaths during the crackdown that followed nationwide protests in January, but many say the real toll is much higher. Some estimates put the figure in the tens of thousands.
In a separate post that followed an hour later, Trump added that "Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!"
Trump said he had instructed his representatives to put the issue of compensations “firmly into any, and all, future negotiations..”
Trump Says US Has Mineswept Hormuz, Bars Ships From Entering Iran
US President Donald Trump says Washington has effectively taken control of the Strait of Hormuz, claiming the strategic waterway has been cleared of mines and that a US blockade of Iranian ports is holding firm.
“We have a blockade that has been infallible; it’s a steel wall,” Trump told reporters at the White House on August 10. He said the strait was “actually open now” because the United States was allowing selected vessels to pass, while preventing ships from entering Iran.
Trump also claimed that the United States had “mineswept” the entire waterway, a key shipping route through which a large share of global oil supplies normally passes. Iran has continued to assert control over traffic in the strait and has said its reopening depends on conditions including an end to US sanctions and compensation for wartime damage.
Trump rejected Tehran’s demand for compensation, saying Washington would instead seek payments from Iran for Americans killed or wounded in conflicts over decades. He cited the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and alleged Iranian responsibility for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, including protesters killed in recent unrest. Trump also said Iran had killed 52,000 protesters over the past four months, referring to a figure he said was an estimate from about a month and a half ago.
Asked whether Washington was still considering a major military escalation against Iran, Trump said the United States “certainly” had the ability to do so. “You’ll find out,” he said when asked what would happen next.
Maritime-security expert Ian Ralby, head of Auxilium Worldwide, told RFE/RL that shipping companies’ ability to use the strait safely remains dependent on the security situation and Iranian permission.
“The reality for the shipping lines on the water is that if they try to go through the US-protected corridor without Iranian permission, they have a very strong likelihood ... of getting attacked,” Ralby said, citing recent drone and missile attacks.
He said insurers and shipping companies would need to see a sustained period of safe navigation before insurance premiums begin to fall. “It is important for the US to show more than tell at this point,” Ralby said.
Trump Says Iran Must Compensate For Killings Of Americans And Its Own People
President Donald Trump declared that the United States would demand compensation from Iran for all killed American soldiers and Iranian protesters over the "past 50 years," and said this issue will be raised in future negotiations with Tehran.
"I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform on August 10.
He said that the issue of compensation has not been raised in any of the negotiations or meetings since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, but that "it is an interesting idea because now 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.”
“Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years," including what he said were “the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months.”
There has been a surge of executions in recent weeks, and rights groups have documented more than 6,000 deaths during the crackdown that followed nationwide protests in January, but many say the real toll is much higher. Some estimates put the figure in the tens of thousands.
In a separate post that followed an hour later, Trump added that "Iran should be responsible for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza!"
Trump said he had instructed his representatives to put the issue of compensations “firmly into any, and all, future negotiations..”
Iran Releases Purported Photo Of Mojtaba Khamenei, Reports Military Appointments
Iranian state-linked media published what they claimed was a new photograph of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and the supreme leader’s office announced on social media that he made several high-level military appointments.
Also on August 10, Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian told state television that he had recently met with Khamenei for about seven hours and that they discussed a wide range of matters.
The reports and the photograph, whose date and authenticity could not immediately be verified, appeared aimed in part to indicate that Khamenei is alive and well and actively engaged in leading the country.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since his appointment to succeed his father as supreme leader was announced in early March, following Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
A top Iranian official said on August 9 that image showing Mojtaba Khamenei “among the people and out in streets, as well in meetings with the commanders of armed forces” would be published in the future.
Among the appointments announced on August 10, citing decrees attributed to Khamenei, were the promotion of Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi as chief of staff of the armed forces. He had been head of the Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates the army and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Hard-line cleric Hossein Taeb, who was dismissed as head of the IRGC's intelligence branch in 2022 after 13 years in the post, was appointed to lead the Basij paramilitary forces, according to another reported decree.
Taeb is close to Mojtaba Khamenei and is considered a key figure behind the scenes. He is under US and European Union sanctions for his alleged role in state repression.
Trump Suggests Economic, Not Military, Pressure Now Favored Against Iran
US President Donald Trump appeared to back off threats of immediate military action against Iran, despite ongoing disputes with Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting he would allow economic pressure to force the Islamic republic to make a long-elusive peace deal.
“We are low-keying it," Trump told news outlet Axios in a brief phone conversation on August 9, using a term generally referring to restrained action.
"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," he was quoted as saying. Axios added that Trump did not make any further military threats during the interview.
Trump said Iran is “in very bad shape” economically, with no money to pay its troops, and that the US naval blockade has intensified the economic crisis being endured by the country’s government.
To read the full report, click here.
Iran-Allied Houthis Hit Saudi Refinery, Threaten To Widen Middle East Conflict
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen struck an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia, threatening to bring in members of a new Saudi-based military alliance into the conflict, and also attacked a Yemeni-government controlled port city as a 2022 UN-brokered truce in the war-torn country further frayed.
The rebels on August 9 said they attacked Saudi Aramco's refinery in the city of Jazan, with the Saudi Energy Ministry saying a fire had broken out at the site but was later extinguished with no injuries, without giving a cause.
Two days earlier, Saudi Arabia signed a defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional dangers developing out of the US-Israeli war with Iran.
The alliance stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all, similar to NATO’s Article 5.
Turkey and Pakistan did not immediately comment following the latest strikes.
Meanwhile, at least 11 people were killed and 20 injured in a Houthi drone and missile strike on the port of Mokha near the important Strait of Bab al-Mandab, Yemeni government military sources told news agencies.
The attack further endangered a 4-year-old UN-brokered truce between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government of Yemen.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, descended into civil war in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, ousting the internationally recognized government. The Tehran-allied group now controls much of the northwest, including Red Sea ports like Hodeidah that are lifelines for food and fuel.
Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite-majority Iran have long been bitter rivals seeking geopolitical and religious influence in the Middle East.
The rebels have announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and the kingdom's oil infrastructure, in parallel with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Official Says Images Of New Supreme Leader To Be Released
A top Iranian official has said images of Mojtaba Khamenei --the man who became Iran’s supreme leader following the death of his father in an Israeli air strike -- will be released in the future.
Khamenei has not been seen in publicly since March when he was announced to be Iran’s next supreme leader.
He’s reportedly suffered serious injuries in the same strike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28 -- the first day of the war. Iranian officials have insisted he is alive and capable of performing his official duties.
Khamenei did not attend his father’s funeral in early July furthering speculation about his condition. Iranian officials said he did not attend out of security concerns.
In comments to the Mizan news outlet on August 9, Qasem Qoraishi, a top official with the Basij organization said footage of Khamenei will be released in future, showing him “among the people and out in streets, as well in meetings with the commanders of armed forces.
Qoraishi did not elaborate; Mizan, the news outlet for Iran’s judiciary, provided no further details.
Basij is a volunteer paramilitary militia affiliated with the elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Another official news outlet, the Mehr News Agency released a short report on August 9 saying Khamenei had met with Pezeshkian, discussing a range of subjects including the US-Israeli war. The conflict, in its fifth month, is in a lull for the moment.
No photographs, audio, or video were released.
Last week, Pezeshkian said that communication with Khamenei was very "difficult at the moment.”
Iran's Revolutionary Guard: Hormuz Reopens When US Accepts Iran’s Demands
Iran’s powerful elite military branch said the Strait of Hormuz would not be reopened until the United States accepted all of Tehran's demands.
The comment by Hussein Mohebi, a spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was the latest defiant message from Iranian officials, as efforts to negotiate an end to the more-than-five-month-old, US and Israeli-led war grind on.
Iran has shut down the critical waterway, crimping a major source of oil tanker traffic for global markets. Tehran has used the shutdown as an essential card in its negotiations with Washington.
Iran and Oman, whose territorial waters sit on the southern side of the strait, have been holding talks to create a tolling system to charge passing ships.
Mohebi was quoted by Iranian state TV on August 9 as saying the IRGC would keep the waterway closed.
"Our current strategy is to maintain this strait until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” he was quoted as saying. “The strait is now actually a theater of war for us and not just a waterway.”
Iran’s foreign minister, meanwhile, said there were no direct talks with Washington ongoing, only via intermediaries.
Speaking to the Mehr news agency, Abbas Araqchi accused Washington of violating an interim deal the two sides signed in June.
Araqchi also said that Iran and Oman were in the "final stages" of their negotiations over transit for the strait.
In an interview with Fox News broadcast August 8, US Vice President JD Vance said Washington's goal was "to see the same amount of oil and gas come out of the Gulf that you saw before the conflict started."
"That is what the Iranians have told us that they are going to do," he was quoted as saying
"But you know, we don't trust them.”
With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, Reuters, AFP
Turkey Insists New Pact Not Targeting Iran, Says Egypt Could Eventually Join
Turkey's foreign minister claimed a defense agreement signed by Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia is not targeting Iran, although he said it is technically the same as NATO's Article 5 mutual defense pact that means an attack on one is an attack on all.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on August 8 added that the pact -- signed a day earlier by leaders of the three nations -- could eventually be joined by Egypt and other countries once a number of technical matters were resolved.
"NATO is a giant military alliance where there are 32 countries. We have started here as three countries and we have to take very humble but concrete steps," he said.
Fidan told state-run Anadolu news agency that a committee of ministers similar to that within the NATO alliance would be established, as well as a general secretariat based in Saudi Arabia.
Fidan did not immediately disclose the issues that needed to be resolved to clear the way for Egypt to joint the accord, led by mostly Sunni Muslim nations. Iran is majority Shi'ite Muslim.
On August 7, the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan came together in the Saudi city of Mecca to sign the joint defense pact aimed at strengthening "collective deterrence against any act of aggression."
In the initial announcement, the Turkish government said the "agreement is not in contradiction with the commitments of Turkey's existing international alliances, including those at the heart of NATO." Turkey is a member of the Western military alliance.
“The agreement is of particular importance in light of the escalating challenges and threats facing the region, foremost among them terrorist attacks, arms smuggling, and threats targeting neighboring countries and international maritime routes,” the ministry added.
The development came amid growing uncertainty in the Middle East, with no immediate end in sight to the confrontation between Tehran and Washington.
Separately, Saudi Arabia last year signed a Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement with Pakistan that included a clause along the lines of NATO's Article 5, which states "any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.
Saudi Arabia, a US ally and long a bitter rival of Iran for regional influence in political, military, and religious matters, has often been a target of Iranian missile and drone launches after the US and Israel struck Iran beginning on February 28.
Oman Condemns Attack On Tanker As Talks Progress With Iran On Hormuz
Oman condemned the latest attack on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz -- suspected to have been carried out by Iran -- even as it said talks were “positive” and "constructive" with Tehran aimed at reaching agreement on a new route through the crucial waterway.
The Omani Foreign Ministry on August 8 expressed its” condemnation of the repeated attacks on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which constitute a violation of international law and the sovereignty of territorial waters, and pose a threat to the safety of maritime navigation and the security and stability of the region.”
It added in the X posting that “the ongoing negotiations regarding arrangements for navigation in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere.”
It also stressed “the importance of avoiding any actions that could affect these negotiations and the progress achieved, which takes into account the interests of all parties.”
The United Arab Emirates said Iran had targeted a tanker belonging to the state-owned oil company as it was transiting the strait on August 8.
The UAE’s Foreign Ministry condemned what it called a "hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker,” adding that a missile caused damages but no casualties on the vessel.
Hours earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran and Muscat were "very close" to reaching an agreement on a new route through the strait.
However, Araqchi also said that Tehran would set conditions for the deal, including compensation for what he called US violations of the agreement between Iran and the United States mediated by Pakistan earlier this year.
There was no immediate comment from US officials.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump said he believed Iran could not sustain the conflict much longer and that negotiations with Tehran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz were ongoing.
Iranian officials denied that talks with Washington were taking place, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei saying Tehran and Muscat had nearly finalized a joint announcement, "provided that certain third parties do not obstruct the process."
The effective closure of the strait has long been one of the central issues in the war between the United States and Iran and one of the main obstacles to a negotiated settlement aimed at ending the broader conflict in the Middle East.
Turkey Says Defense Pact With Saudi Arabia, Pakistan Doesn't Contradict Ankara's NATO Commitments
Turkey said on August 7 that its new defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan did not contradict the country's commitments to the NATO alliance.
"The agreement is not in contradiction with the commitments of Turkey's existing international alliances, including those at the heart of NATO," the Turkish government's anti-disinformation service wrote on X.
The service said it was responding to "baseless claims and manipulative posts" criticizing the new agreement. It added that the agreement served as an additional mechanism to support regional security and was "not an alternative to its NATO membership."
Earlier in the day, the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan came together in the Saudi city of Mecca to sign a joint defense pact aimed at strengthening "collective deterrence against any act of aggression."
The development came amid growing uncertainty in the Middle East, with no immediate end in sight to the confrontation between Tehran and Washington.