Iran has rejected the Gulf states' demand that it pay full compensation for damage caused by its missile and drone attacks during the recent regional war — and has turned the demand around, saying the Gulf states themselves owe Tehran reparations. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the rejection at his weekly press conference in Tehran on Sunday, November 15, according to the IANS news agency and Iran's Press TV.

This is Iran's answer to the demand the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) put to the United Nations Security Council on Friday — read what the GCC asked for first. GCC asks UN to make Iran pay for Gulf attacks

Baghaei was responding to GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, who addressed the Security Council in New York on Friday at a meeting convened at Bahrain's request. Albudaiwi said Iran had launched more than 7,000 missiles and drones against Gulf states since February 28, and that the GCC holds Iran fully responsible for the attacks and their consequences.

The GCC's demands to the Security Council included requiring Iran to provide full compensation for the damage, losses and injuries resulting from its attacks, in accordance with international law and Human Rights Council Resolution 61/1, IANS reported.

Baghaei: countries that helped the attacks cannot demand payment

Baghaei rejected the demand outright. He said regional countries that "actively participated in the military aggression" against Iran and made their territories available for use by the "aggressors" cannot demand reparations from Tehran.

"We are the ones entitled to claim compensation, and we have documented all the instances in which regional countries played a role in assisting the United States and the Zionist regime in their actions against Iran," Baghaei said, according to Press TV. He added that Tehran's findings have been formally communicated to the countries concerned through diplomatic channels.

The spokesman said Tehran does not take the GCC member states' claim for compensation seriously, calling it "baseless and frivolous". He warned the Gulf states not to "reopen the old wounds" of their support for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during the 1980s war on Iran — including multi-billion-dollar financial aid, weapons and military support, and the deployment of troops.

Baghaei said there is "clear evidence" that the losses and damages inflicted on Iran directly or indirectly during the 40-day war originated from certain countries in the region. Citing international law and UN General Assembly Resolution 3314, he argued that any country that played a role, directly or indirectly, in the US-Israeli military aggression against Iran should be considered an accomplice to the aggressors and bear responsibility for the crimes committed.

He stressed that Iran's own actions were, in Tehran's account, "purely defensive in nature and targeted exclusively U.S. military bases and assets that had been used to launch attacks" against Iran, and that Iran had taken no action against the sovereignty of the Gulf states themselves.

Background: a 40-day war, and a compensation fight at the UN

The dispute follows the war that began on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched joint attacks on Iran. Iran answered with successive waves of missile and drone attacks on Israel and on American military bases and assets across West Asia. The fighting lasted about 40 days, and the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway carrying a large share of the world's oil — was at the centre of the crisis.

The compensation question matters well beyond the diplomats. Lakhs of Punjabi and Indian workers live and work in the Gulf states — in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait — and their safety, jobs and remittances depend on the region staying stable. A prolonged legal and political fight over who pays for the war's damage keeps that uncertainty alive, and any further escalation would put shipping, oil prices and Gulf-based workers' livelihoods back at risk.

What happens next

Neither side has shown any sign of backing down. The GCC has put its compensation demand on the Security Council's record, and Iran says it has documented its own counter-claim and raised it through diplomatic channels. No payment mechanism has been agreed, and the dispute is now set to continue at the United Nations — with the Gulf states pressing their claim and Iran pressing its own, in the opposite direction.