President Donald Trump has demanded that Iran pay compensation for the deaths of US soldiers, victims of Iranian-backed attacks and Iranian protesters, adding a new condition to negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The demand came after Iran said it needed war reparations from Washington before the strategic waterway could be fully reopened. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was likewise demanding compensation after seeing Iranian representatives ask for damages from the five-month military conflict. He said reparations should cover not only damage from the current war but also attacks by militias linked to Iran on US troops since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump cited roadside bombs believed to have been orchestrated by Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. He also referenced the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, though US intelligence has blamed al-Qaeda, not Tehran. Trump also asked Iran to compensate its own citizens for protesters killed at the start of the year. He had partially justified the February 2026 US-Israeli war by citing Iran's crackdown on protesters. Trump said 50,000 people were killed, while an Iranian official put the number at at least 5,000. Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, had said Tehran needed war reparations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump's rebuttal fits a pattern of matching Iranian demands with his own. He had earlier suggested the US could charge a 20 percent toll on the waterway as its 'guardian', a move his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called 'completely illegal'. A ceasefire extension announced in June appears to have broken down, as both sides seek an advantage on the battlefield. The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Trump had given up on his main stated objective of ensuring a nuclear agreement and would end the war to fully reopen the Strait. Meanwhile, Trump insisted negotiations were continuing despite Tehran's denials, saying Iran faced a 'last chance' to reach a deal on the waterway and its nuclear programme before what he called 'decapitation.' Separately, lawmakers from both parties have grown frustrated over the lack of information about the conflict, according to CBS News.