{"text":[[{"start":10,"text":"The US has carried out a fifth round of strikes on Iran, sparking retaliation from Tehran, as hostilities escalated over control of the Strait of Hormuz."}],[{"start":20,"text":"The spate of tit-for-tat exchanges within the past week between Washington and Tehran risks a return to full-scale war, with a ceasefire agreement between the sides on the verge of collapse."}],[{"start":33.2,"text":"US President Donald Trump has struggled to negotiate an end to the violence, which has damaged his approval ratings, strained relations with allies and hit voters with higher petrol prices ahead of the November midterm elections."}],[{"start":46.7,"text":"Oil prices rose after the latest exchanges, with Brent, the international benchmark, up 4 per cent in early Asian trading to $79 a barrel."}],[{"start":55.800000000000004,"text":"US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, carried out two rounds of strikes on Sunday in order to “degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”."}],[{"start":69.35000000000001,"text":"The strikes hit dozens of targets, including “military air-defence systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small boats and involved fighter jets, warships, one-way attack aerial drones and, for the first time, one-way attack sea drones”, Centcom said."}],[{"start":86.10000000000001,"text":"Centcom said its strikes came after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired at a commercial vessel, and said US forces had intercepted an Iranian cruise missile and drone."}],[{"start":96.4,"text":"Iranian state media reported explosions in Bandar Abbas, Sirik, Jask and Qeshm, which are along the vital waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited before the conflict. Locations in western Iran were hit, as well as Khondab, in central Iran, site of the Khondab Heavy Water Research Reactor."}],[{"start":115.35000000000001,"text":"In response, the IRGC said its forces had carried out multiple rounds of retaliatory operations overnight, targeting US military bases, hitting missile depots and fuel storage tanks in Jordan, a helicopter facility, electronic warfare aircraft and a drone command and control centre in Bahrain and a Patriot air defence system in Kuwait."}],[{"start":138.05,"text":"The Guards said the operations would continue."}],[{"start":141.15,"text":"The exchange of strikes followed an intense round of US attacks on Iran on Saturday night, which hit about 140 targets. Iran had also retaliated against those strikes by attacking targets in Jordan, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar."}],[{"start":158.1,"text":"The strikes on Saturday came after the IRGC hit a Cypriot-flagged commercial ship transiting the strait and declared the waterway closed. The US military insisted the strait was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit”."}],[{"start":175.04999999999998,"text":"Trump told NBC News about the strait on Sunday: “It’s open. We bombed the hell out of them last night.”"}],[{"start":182.2,"text":"The latest clashes have further strained a memorandum of understanding the US and Iran signed on June 17, under which Tehran agreed to reopen the strait without charging fees and extend a fragile ceasefire by 60 days to allow time for negotiations over its nuclear programme."}],[{"start":199.7,"text":"But that ceasefire has broken down in recent days as Iranian forces have attacked vessels in the strait, including tankers belonging to Saudi Arabia and Qatar."}],[{"start":209.45,"text":"The US launched attacks on Iran on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, hitting more than 160 targets."}],[{"start":216.6,"text":"Trump, who had declared the ceasefire over earlier in the week, said on Friday that the US had agreed to continue peace talks. The US also demanded that Tehran publicly declare that the regime would stop attacking ships in the strait."}],[{"start":230.15,"text":"The US president suggested on Sunday that negotiations had made some progress before the IRGC hit the commercial ship on Saturday."}],[{"start":239.3,"text":"Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington"}],[{"start":249.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783916988_1997.mp3"}