{"text":[[{"start":9.3,"text":"Donald Trump has vowed more attacks on Iran after the warring countries exchanged fire for the first time in more than a month, sending oil prices up 3 per cent."}],[{"start":18.836,"text":"The US president issued a warning on Monday hours after Tehran fired missiles at American assets in Jordan in response to an attack by the US on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, ending a month of relative calm in the war."}],[{"start":30.68,"text":"“There will be a response” to Iran’s retaliatory attack, Trump told Fox News. “We’re going to hit them hard.”"}],[{"start":37.776,"text":"The US military said on Sunday it had struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak, saying it believed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was poised to launch rockets with sea mines into the waterway."}],[{"start":48.62,"text":"Iran retaliated with a barrage of missiles against Jordan, where the US maintains a troop presence. Trump said one missile pierced US air defences but the rest were intercepted."}],[{"start":58.36,"text":"After the attacks and Trump’s threat to escalate the conflict, international oil benchmark Brent settled up 2.7 per cent on Monday at $90.49 a barrel."}],[{"start":68.26,"text":"Tehran threatened further responses to US strikes on Monday, with an Iranian official telling Reuters that for every American attack, the regime would deliver a response “dozens of times greater”."}],[{"start":78.76,"text":"Iran’s retaliation for the Larak attack demonstrated that “no target in the region is beyond Tehran’s reach”, the official added."}],[{"start":86.012,"text":"The US attack appeared smaller and more focused than Washington’s last known larger-scale strikes on the Islamic republic on July 29, when “dozens” of targets were hit in a two-hour wave of bombing."}],[{"start":96.51,"text":"US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, described its attack on Sunday as a “limited, precise action”."}],[{"start":104.14,"text":"The Iranian official also told Reuters that the renewed violence was a “limited and contained confrontation” between Washington and Tehran."}],[{"start":111.64,"text":"But the latest escalation risks a return to full-blown war ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November. Trump has struggled to end the conflict, which has stoked inflation and is unpopular with the US electorate."}],[{"start":123.68,"text":"He has also failed to fully reopen the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flowed before the war."}],[{"start":131.04,"text":"The six-month war between the US and Iran has become a stalemate, and talks between Washington and Tehran have collapsed."}],[{"start":138.62,"text":"At the White House on Monday, Trump described Iran as a “failed nation” that had “no currency”, wasn’t paying its soldiers and its “leaders are largely dead” but “that doesn’t mean we won’t smack them”. “We’ll see what happens.”"}],[{"start":152.32,"text":"He also said the Strait of Hormuz was “in extremely good shape”. “Many, many ships got through last night, with the Navy’s assistance, and we’ve been averaging 30 ships a night. That’s a lot, and a lot of oil is coming.”"}],[{"start":166.307,"text":"US vice-president JD Vance said Trump was “sending a message to the Iranians” by posting an AI-generated video of strikes on Kharg Island, the vital Iranian oil export hub, following the exchange of fire on Sunday."}],[{"start":179.6,"text":"“The president is saying . . . ‘look, you guys are shooting at commercial shipping, you guys are behaving like a terrorist country. You’ve got to stop, or there’s going to be some consequences’,” added Vance."}],[{"start":190.88,"text":"During the relative calm of the past month, the US shifted to prioritising economic warfare against Iran, with Treasury secretary Scott Bessent expanding secondary sanctions on Tehran and threatening measures that could “blow up” the global financial system."}],[{"start":205.96,"text":"But so far, Bessent has stopped short of the “economic D-Day” he had threatened and has only revoked US financial access to an Egyptian bank’s branches in the United Arab Emirates."}],[{"start":216.84,"text":"Bessent on Monday said Iran was “lashing out kinetically because they are losing economically”."}],[{"start":222.52,"text":"Tehran was taking US sanctions “very seriously”, and Washington would continue to exert economic pressure on the regime, Bessent added."}],[{"start":229.82,"text":"In an address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit in Las Vegas on Monday, Ron Dermer, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the US and Israel are “maybe 95 per cent aligned” on the path forward in Iran."}],[{"start":245.32,"text":"Washington “has to have a clear policy of kinetically responding to any Iranian provocation, so that they know that if they go and they hit some of the Gulf countries, if they hit Israel, if they hit United States assets in the region, the US is going to respond very forcefully,” he added."}],[{"start":261.64,"text":"Larak, located in the throat of the strait, is a strategic point allowing the IRGC navy to observe and attack commercial shipping in the vital waterway with anti-ship missiles, mines and drones."}],[{"start":273.36,"text":"“IRGC forces also have rocket-launched ‘smart’ programmable mines for rapidly denying the shipping lanes to the enemy,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think-tank."}],[{"start":286,"text":"“Larak has a missile speedboat harbour to its north, and a mostly underground network of very discreet-looking coastal missile and rocket batteries with a number of pre-surveyed launch spots,” Nadimi added."}],[{"start":298.16,"text":"Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who left Tehran on Monday to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation security forum in Kyrgyzstan, said his country was “not seeking war”, adding: “We will never remain passive and we will give a firm response to the aggressors.”"}],[{"start":314.4,"text":"The IRGC said it used missiles and drones to carry out a retaliatory strike on Sunday against technical and maintenance infrastructure as well as fighter jet positions at two US air bases in Jordan."}],[{"start":326.36,"text":"Meanwhile, Iran’s regular army said it had launched dozens of attack drones against the US military at Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE early on Monday."}],[{"start":336.04,"text":"Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner in Las Vegas and James Politi in Washington"}],[{"start":347.16,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788229198_7127.mp3"}