Trump and Iran clash over reparations as Hormuz standoff hardens

President Donald Trump and Iran escalated their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, adding rival demands for reparations to a widening deadlock over shipping access. Trump said the U.S. Navy had cleared mines and now had full control of the waterway, describing it as open despite sporadic Iranian mine-laying. Tehran took the opposite line, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei and Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr insisting the strait will stay closed until Washington lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, withdraws forces, releases frozen Iranian assets and pays for war damage. The confrontation has left Oman-backed shipping talks stalled and kept one of the world's most important oil routes at the center of the U.S.-Iran conflict.