Hopes for Hormuz deal fade as Trump demands Iranian reparations
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- Donald Trump demanded Iran pay 50 years of war damages, including compensation for protester deaths and the 17 US sailors killed in the 2000 USS Cole attack — an incident blamed on al Qaeda, not Iran.
- Oil prices settled 5% higher on Monday as the reparations demand dimmed prospects for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Oman-mediated talks were "progressing smoothly and constructively," with agreement on a shipping route map but some technical issues remaining.
- The Oman-mediated deal would give Tehran more leverage over the strait than it held before the February war — a concession US officials have already ruled out by opposing any Iranian access fees.
- Trump cited 52,000 protester deaths in Iran as of six weeks ago — roughly 8x the figure reported by the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency in February (around 7,000, including 6,500 protesters).
- Trump is under midterm pressure to end the deeply unpopular war, with high fuel prices a top concern in the rural areas that have backed him.
Why it matters: Trump's new demand contradicts his repeated claim that 'only the US Navy controls' the Strait of Hormuz — Iran's grip remains intact after July's two-week strike campaign. The proposed Oman deal would actually give Tehran more leverage than before the war, just as midterm fuel prices pressure Trump toward the very deal he's now walking away from.
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