Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi criticised US President Donald Trump's proposal to use frozen Iranian assets under US control to pay for damage to ships and cargoes, warning it would set a dangerous international precedent.
No one's assets were safe once governments normalised such confiscation, he added on Friday. "Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful."
Seizing another nation's assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent.Those who celebrate or profit from such funds should remember: once governments normalize confiscation, no one's assets are safe. Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful.
His comments came hours after Trump wrote on Truth Social that "any and all damages done" to cargo ships would be paid for with "Iranian Money," referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the United States, but without saying how.
Trump said on Thursday he would hold Iran accountable for any attacks by Yemen's Houthi militants, who said this week they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia. Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint.