Symbolic imageTrump demands Iranian reparations as Hormuz stays shut
Donald Trump wants Iran to pay compensation for people killed over five decades. Tehran keeps the Strait of Hormuz shut until its terms are met.
Trump posted the demand on Truth Social on Monday, 10 August, after Iranian negotiators had claimed damages for the five-month war. Iran should pay the families of those killed on the USS Cole, of hundreds of thousands of protesters killed over 50 years and of the 52,000 killed in the past five months, he wrote, extending the claim an hour later to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza. He said the US Navy alone controls the strait and had mine-swept all of it; Kpler counted six transits on Sunday against 130 to 140 before the war.
Tehran's six conditions
Iran's outgoing Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr listed them at the weekend: an end to US threats, a permanent end to the regional war, the withdrawal of US naval and air forces, an end to the blockade, the lifting of all sanctions and reparations. Tehran also plans to charge transit fees.
Khamenei names his commanders
Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei made Guards general Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi chief of staff of the armed forces on Monday and confirmed Ahmad Vahidi as head of the Revolutionary Guards, his first military appointments since succeeding his father in March. Mohsen Rezaee took over the Council a day earlier.
Other opinions
Bloomberg and the WSJ frame the day as a US switch to economic pressure; the Guardian sees stalled talks.