President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Iran compensate the families of all the people killed or gravely wounded by its “roadside bombs” and many attacks during the past 50 years.

Trump issued the demand after Tehran sought compensation for damage inflicted during the five-month military conflict with the United States, turning Iran’s demand for reparations back on the Islamic Republic as negotiations continue over the Strait of Hormuz.

“I see that Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran are asking for compensation for the damage done to them during the last five month Military Conflict,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that the war began because Iran would not be permitted to obtain a nuclear weapon.

Trump said Iran’s demand had not previously surfaced in negotiations but called it “an interesting idea” because Washington could make its own demands based on decades of Iranian-backed violence.

Trump specifically cited Americans killed or wounded by roadside bombs and other attacks tied to the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who commanded the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force before Trump ordered the 2020 strike that killed him.

Iranian-backed militias were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American troops during the Iraq War. A previous Pentagon estimate attributed 603 U.S. military deaths in Iraq to Iran-backed fighters. Congressional testimony has also detailed Soleimani’s role in supplying lethal explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, used against American forces.

Trump also included families of those killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in his compensation demand. The attack killed 17 American sailors and injured nearly 40. The FBI concluded that al-Qaida planned and carried out the bombing. Trump has previously said Iran was “probably involved,” while an Army judge this year ordered prosecutors to search government records for evidence concerning any Iranian role.

Trump broadened his demand to include Iranians killed by their own government, saying compensation should go to families of “hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors” he said Tehran has killed over the past half-century. He also claimed 52,000 people have been killed during the past five months. Trump’s statement did not provide evidence for that figure.

The president said his demand would now become part of Washington’s negotiating position. “I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations,” Trump wrote.

Iran has sought reparations among a series of concessions as negotiations continue over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global energy shipments.