At the narrow throat of the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world's energy passes each day, Washington and Tehran are engaged in a ritual as old as statecraft itself: each side demanding the other pay first for wounds both helped inflict. President Trump's call for fifty years of Iranian reparations is a mirror image of Tehran's own demands, and together these competing claims reveal not irreconcilable enemies but two powers circling a deal neither can afford to refuse. The blockade that has already halved shipping traffic and stilled Iranian oil exports is less a weapon of war than a c
Trump Demands Iran Reparations as Strait of Hormuz Talks Stall
Disputed death toll figures: Trump claims 52,000 Iranians killed in four months; HRANA reported ~7,000 deaths including 6,500 protesters; Tehran cites 3,117 deaths in January protests.