{"text":[[{"start":18.55,"text":"JD Vance will lead a US delegation to Islamabad for talks with Iran, the White House has said, as a massive Israeli bombardment of Lebanon threatened to jeopardise the day-old ceasefire."}],[{"start":31.19,"text":"The vice-president on Wednesday tried to calm tensions over the Israeli offensive, saying there had been a “legitimate misunderstanding” by Iran about whether Lebanon was included in the agreement."}],[{"start":44.02,"text":"The US and Israel have said Lebanon is not covered by the two-week truce, as European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, called on Israel to halt its bombardment."}],[{"start":60.95,"text":"Vance said “the Israelis, as I understand it” had offered “to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon, because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”. "}],[{"start":72,"text":"The talks on a long-term peace deal are set for this weekend in Pakistan, which helped broker the ceasefire. But there were already growing signs of strain."}],[{"start":83.83,"text":"The Islamic republic on Wednesday halted the passage of two oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz after Israel launched its biggest bombardment against Hizbollah in Lebanon since the war began more than five weeks ago, Iranian state media said. "}],[{"start":102.27,"text":"Tehran is supposed to allow free flow of traffic through the strategic waterway as part of the ceasefire agreement as US President Donald Trump seeks to ease the global energy crisis triggered by the war."}],[{"start":116.3,"text":"The White House has insisted that reports the strait was closed are false. Vance said the US had seen evidence of the waterway “starting to reopen”."}],[{"start":127.03999999999999,"text":"Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US had not accepted Iran’s plan to levy tolls on ship traffic. She said Trump “wants to see the strait reopened immediately without limitation, and that’s something we’re going to hold them to”."}],[{"start":142.57999999999998,"text":"Iran has claimed the truce has already been violated, citing the failure to apply the two-week ceasefire to Israel’s war with Hizbollah."}],[{"start":152.01,"text":"Israel launched strikes across Lebanon, including Beirut. The attacks killed more than 250 people and wounded more than 700, according to Lebanon’s state-run civil defence service."}],[{"start":165.85,"text":"Iran threatened to withdraw from the ceasefire arrangement if the assault continued. A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country was “preparing to respond” to the Israeli attacks in Lebanon."}],[{"start":181.03,"text":"“An act of aggression against Hizbollah is an act of aggression against Iran,” Majid Mousavi, commander of the guards’ aerospace forces, said in a post on X. He added that Iranian forces “are preparing to deliver a heavy response to the savage crimes of the [Israeli] regime”."}],[{"start":200.57,"text":"In a sign of the mounting tensions, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of Iran’s top civilian leaders, said the basis under which talks were supposed to take place had been “openly and clearly violated even before the negotiations began”."}],[{"start":217.92,"text":"Ghalibaf said the alleged violations included US insistence that Iran give up its capacity to enrich uranium, the entry of a drone into Iranian airspace and the failure to apply the two-week ceasefire to Israel’s war with Hizbollah."}],[{"start":234.66,"text":"Tehran insists the Israeli-Hizbollah war was included in the ceasefire agreement. But Trump told broadcaster PBS on Wednesday that Lebanon was not included in the truce “because of Hizbollah”."}],[{"start":248.84,"text":"Adding to the confusion, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has mediated between the US and Iran, said Lebanon was included in the ceasefire arrangement."}],[{"start":262.74,"text":"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to restart the war against Iran “at any moment”."}],[{"start":271.62,"text":"“We still have goals to achieve, and we will achieve them — either through an agreement or through restarting the war . . . the finger is on the trigger,” he said in a recorded primetime address on Wednesday."}],[{"start":284.97,"text":"Egypt, which was involved in the mediation alongside Pakistan, said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon were an attempt to drag the region into “total chaos”. "}],[{"start":297.40000000000003,"text":"The latest Hizbollah-Israeli conflict erupted after the militant group began firing across the border after Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in air strikes on Tehran. "}],[{"start":311.98,"text":"Gulf states, which have borne the brunt of the US and Israel’s war against Iran, also said they continued to face Iranian missile and drone attacks as tensions simmered across the region."}],[{"start":324.57,"text":"Iran also said it faced two attacks on Wednesday, saying a refinery was targeted in the south of the country and that it had shot down a drone in a separate incident."}],[{"start":335.52,"text":"US stocks closed higher on Wednesday and oil prices, which had hit multiyear highs, tumbled. Brent crude fell 13 per cent to $94.75 a barrel, its lowest level in nearly a month, while US West Texas Intermediate was down 16 per cent at just under $95 a barrel."}],[{"start":359.41999999999996,"text":"Announcing the ceasefire on Tuesday, Trump said the “long-term problem” with Iran was “close to a resolution”. He added that a 10-point plan Iran presented to his administration was a “workable basis” for negotiations, saying that “almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed”."}],[{"start":378.96,"text":"On Wednesday, Trump said he was “talking” about sanctions relief with Iran, adding that his administration would work with the regime to recover its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, buried beneath the rubble of nuclear facilities the US bombed last June."}],[{"start":396.64,"text":"US defence secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday cast the ceasefire as an “overwhelming victory” for Washington, while warning that the military “stands ready” to ensure Iran complies with the deal."}],[{"start":410.07,"text":"Iran, which has characterised the ceasefire as US surrender, also said it was ready to resume the conflict. The Revolutionary Guards said the republic was serious about keeping its “finger on the trigger”."}],[{"start":425.12,"text":"Additional reporting by Amy Mackinnon in Budapest and Abigail Hauslohner and James Politi in Washington "}],[{"start":443.75,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775727356_5670.mp3"}