Washington Demands Reparations, Claims Full Hormuz Control

US President Donald Trump demanded on Monday, August 10, that Iran pay reparations for damage he says it inflicted over the past fifty years, while also claiming that the Strait of Hormuz is now fully controlled by the US Navy. For Serbia, which buys crude oil and refined products at world prices, this is not a distant diplomatic episode: the price of a barrel has jumped more than 10 percent in a week, and Brent has moved close to $90 a barrel. We reported on August 9 on Iran’s list of conditions for reopening the waterway, and Washington is now answering that list with a demand of its own.

Trump made the demand to reporters at the White House, repeated it in the Oval Office, and elaborated on it in a post on Truth Social. He framed it as a direct response to Iran’s own request for war reparations.

“They wanted reparations, you could say. Or they wanted money for damage we caused. I said that’s a good idea. Well, we’re going to want money for the damage they caused over a period of 50 years.”

By his account, the bill would cover both American soldiers killed in the region and civilians killed inside Iran itself.

What Trump Is Putting on Tehran’s Tab

The list the president laid out on Monday includes several separate items:

• reparations for people killed and seriously wounded, as he put it, by Iranian roadside bombs and in numerous conflicts
• reparations for the damage Iran, in his words, bears responsibility for in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza
• payments to the families of the 17 US sailors killed in the 2000 attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen

That last item is disputed before it even reaches the negotiating table, since the attack on the Cole is attributed to al Qaeda, not Iran.

“I’m also demanding reparations from Iran, for all the people they killed and seriously wounded with their roadside bombs and in many conflicts.”

Trump also claimed that 52,000 people had been killed in Iran over the past four months. That figure is his own and has not been confirmed by any independent count. Tehran says about 3,117 people were killed in the anti-government protests that swept the country in January, that is, before the war began, while the US-based agency HRANA reported in February that roughly 7,000 people had died, including 6,500 protesters.

Who Actually Controls the Strait of Hormuz?

This is where a gap opens that is harder to explain away than the casualty figures. In the Oval Office, Trump said the Navy had cleared the strait of mines and now held it completely, though he added that Iran could still cause trouble, just not afford a long war.

“The only one controlling the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We control the strait 100 percent.”

Data from companies that track maritime traffic tell a different story. Fifteen ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, 11 on Saturday, and just six on Sunday. US Central Command has said that since the blockade was reinstated in July, 55 commercial vessels have been diverted and at least two disabled. Iranian oil exports from Kharg Island have stopped entirely. The strait has been effectively closed since the war began on February 28, and the claim of full control is not, for now, reflected in the vessel numbers passing through it.

Charles Kupchan, a former adviser to US President Barack Obama, told Al Jazeera that this is posturing without serious intent on either side, since Iran cannot survive without exporting oil, and Washington does not want to head into congressional elections with high fuel prices.

Talks in Muscat Continue in Parallel

Iran and Oman are still discussing shipping routes through the strait that separates the two countries. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Monday that the talks are proceeding smoothly and constructively, that a map of shipping routes has been agreed, and that only technical questions remain open, among them safe navigation, environmental protection and combating crime at sea. The same spokesman drew a line Tehran has no intention of moving.

“Diplomacy is certainly part of our struggle… when you are dealing with a side that insists on the use of force, a naval blockade is not a diplomatic act that we can lift through diplomacy.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council is sticking to six conditions: an end to threats, lifting the naval blockade of Iranian ports, withdrawal of US forces from the region, payment of war reparations, lifting of sanctions and the release of frozen assets. Trump’s counter-demand adds a new line to that ledger and complicates the mediators’ work in Muscat.

Tehran also sent a signal aimed at its domestic public on Monday. President Masoud Pezeshkian said that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei conveyed a message of unity to him during a seven-hour meeting, and that he is in good health, despite not having appeared in public for some time.

The Bill That Reaches Serbia Too

Washington is meanwhile cushioning the fallout at home. Trump extended a waiver of the Jones Act for 90 days, temporarily allowing foreign vessels to carry energy and agricultural goods between US ports. That kind of measure is not introduced when supply is running smoothly, but when the domestic fleet cannot keep up with the routes.

For Serbia and the wider region, the impact travels through price. Higher crude oil prices on world markets reach domestic consumers through fuel prices and the import bill within a few weeks, and every day the strait stays closed extends that pressure. Reopening the waterway now depends on talks in which both sides are demanding money from each other.

The next concrete date is technical, not political: once Tehran and Muscat sign off on the agreed map of shipping routes, it will become clear whether vessels that set out on it pass American destroyers or turn back.