By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
Tehran wants to be paid back. Washington says get in line.
President Trump said Monday that representatives of the Islamic Republic are seeking compensation for damage inflicted during the five-month military conflict between the two countries this year — a war Trump says started over Iranian demands he has not fully specified in the public record we've reviewed. His response: if anyone is owed money, it's the United States.
Trump said any future negotiations with Iran must include compensation for the families of sailors killed in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, along with the thousands of Americans and others he says have died in attacks carried out or backed by Iran over the years. He did not name a dollar figure, nor has the administration released a formal claim.
The exchange is being conducted almost entirely through public statements rather than diplomatic channels — Trump's demand came via a post responding to Iranian officials' own public appeal for reparations. Neither side has detailed what a settlement might look like, and there's no indication formal reparations talks are underway.
What's clear: five months after fighting stopped, the argument over who owes whom is still live, and it's happening in the same venue where it seems to happen these days — social media and press availabilities, not sealed-room negotiations. For a region that has seen cease-fires collapse before, a war of words over money is, at minimum, a sign neither government considers the conflict fully closed.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE —
— Compiled from reporting by Fox News and The Hill.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."