{"text":[[{"start":10.9,"text":"The Pentagon on Tuesday said its cost estimate for the US’s Iran war had risen to $29bn, up $4bn in two weeks, as Donald Trump signalled his readiness to restart his bombing campaign unless Tehran agreed a deal."}],[{"start":25.85,"text":"A senior Pentagon official told US legislators that the war’s new price tag accounted for “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs” and operational costs to keep forces in the conflict zone."}],[{"start":38.25,"text":"“We think it’s closer to $29bn,” Jay Hurst, the defence department’s acting comptroller, testified at a congressional hearing where lawmakers pressed the administration for answers on the increasingly unpopular war. "}],[{"start":53.3,"text":"The latest disclosure came as the US president prepared to leave Washington for Beijing, where he said he would discuss his war with China’s leader Xi Jinping."}],[{"start":62.699999999999996,"text":"Trump on Tuesday indicated he would be willing to restart the conflict after weeks of fragile ceasefire."}],[{"start":69.25,"text":"“We’ll win it one way or the other. We’ll win it peacefully or otherwise,” Trump said, a day after he declared the ceasefire to be on “life support”."}],[{"start":77.6,"text":"“We are going to see what happens. We are only making a good deal,” he said as he left the White House."}],[{"start":84.3,"text":"Trump was speaking just hours after official data showed the impact of the war on the US economy, with inflation jumping to a three-year high on the back of soaring fuel prices. "}],[{"start":94.85,"text":"Inflation’s resurgence has hit the president’s approval ratings. An FT poll last week showed more than half of voters disapprove of his handling of the economy."}],[{"start":104.64999999999999,"text":"Lawmakers homed in on the war’s escalating costs during back-to-back Capitol Hill hearings on Tuesday. Defence secretary Pete Hegseth in particular faced criticism from members of his Republican Party for not being clear about how the Pentagon would pay for more war."}],[{"start":121.75,"text":"US officials have privately said the military has expended “years” of its critical munitions stockpiles, and the White House plans to submit a supplemental request to Congress to cover the cost."}],[{"start":133,"text":"“It’d be helpful to get the supplemental sooner rather than later,” said Republican Congress member Ken Calvert, who chairs a panel on defence spending, when Hegseth did not provide an answer on timing."}],[{"start":144.15,"text":"Hegseth also refused to be drawn on the health of the military’s arsenal, after it launched weeks of air strikes and bombing raids in Iran."}],[{"start":152,"text":"“The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” he told a House panel. “We know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need.” "}],[{"start":161.6,"text":"He added later: “I take issue with the characterisation that munitions are depleted in a public forum.”"}],[{"start":168.35,"text":"The Pentagon has said its record-setting $1.5tn budget request for fiscal year 2027 does not account for the Iran war. The 2027 figure is roughly 44 per cent higher than defence spending approved for this year, triggering more anxiety in Washington about the mounting cost of the conflict in an election year."}],[{"start":188.79999999999998,"text":"Rising fuel costs from the war have also driven up the cost of the conflict itself, with the US military’s standard fuel price rising from $154 to $195 a barrel, Democratic Congress member Betty McCollum said in the House hearing."}],[{"start":203.7,"text":"Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a fierce defender of the president, used a defence budget hearing in the Senate to implore Trump to take a hard line with Xi during the long-awaited summit. "}],[{"start":213.7,"text":"“President Trump, when you go to China, realise that the person you’re talking to is propping up Russia and Iran,” the senator said."}],[{"start":221.79999999999998,"text":"Hegseth conceded Beijing has a “lot of leverage” over Tehran and “buys a very large percentage” of Iranian oil."}],[{"start":230.45,"text":"US efforts to negotiate an end to the war have failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical corridor through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits. Iran had largely closed the passage after the US and Israel started the war on February 28."}],[{"start":253.85,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778647942_9895.mp3"}