AFP Asia Business

Iran struck Israel with barrages of missiles on Saturday, a day after a massive onslaught against its nuclear and military facilities killed top generals and nuclear scientists.Israeli emergency services said two people were killed when a rocket hit a residential area early Saturday, as the two sides traded fire for a second day despite international calls for de-escalation.Iran called on its citizens to unite in defence of the country as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to rise up against their government.Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel through the night, with many residents holed up in bomb shelters until home defence commanders stood down alerts.Israel said dozens of missiles — some intercepted — had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran, with AFP images of the city of Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv showing blown-out buildings, destroyed vehicles and streets strewn with debris.Israeli rescuers said two people were killed and 19 wounded on Saturday by rocket fire on a residential area in the coastal plain.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.Israeli firefighters had worked for hours to free people trapped in a high-rise building in Tel Aviv on Friday.Resident Chen Gabizon told AFP he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert.”After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.Rescuers said 34 people were wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.- Israel braces for more -Speaking to CNN, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said Iran had fired three salvos of ballistic missiles on Friday, some 150 in total.”We expect that the Iranians, who have a considerable volume of ballistic missiles, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,000, will continue to fire them,” Leiter said.In Tehran, fire and heavy smoke billowed over Mehrabad airport early Saturday, an AFP journalist said, as Iranian media reported an explosion.Blasts were heard across the capital as Iran activated its air defences against the incoming fire.The Israeli military said it had struck Iranian “defence arrays” in the Tehran area in the overnight strikes.Dozens of Iranians took to the streets to cheer their country’s military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.As fears mounted of wider conflict, UN chief Antonio Guterres called on both sides to cease fire.”Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” he said on X late Friday.- ‘Dialogue and diplomacy’ -US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to do with Israel’s strikes on Iran.US President Donald Trump agreed in a call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that “dialogue and diplomacy” were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer’s office said.Trump also spoke with the Israeli prime minister, US officials said without elaborating.Iran’s missile barrages came in response to intense Israeli strikes on Friday that killed several top Iranian generals and most of the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards’ air arm.Iran’s Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were also among the dead.In a televised address, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to bring Israel “to ruin”.Netanyahu urged Iranians to rise up against their leaders, warning more attacks were coming. “As we achieve our objective, we are also clearing the path for you to achieve your freedom.”- Radiation levels ‘unchanged’ -Israel pounded Iranian nuclear sites, including its main underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz in central Iran.Israel said it had damaged the facility’s enrichment centrifuges but Iran said most of the damage was above ground and no casualties had been sustained.”Most of the damage is on the surface level,” said Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.He said the damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites was also only limited.The conflict threw into doubt plans for a fresh round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran in Oman on Sunday.After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to “make a deal”, adding that Washington was “hoping to get back to the negotiating table”.The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the “point of no return” on its nuclear programme.Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.bur-ds/gv/sco/kir

Israel struck Iranian nuclear and military facilities with a barrage of missiles on Friday, killing several top officials and prompting a counter-attack by Iran.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s attack on its arch-rival would last “as many days” as needed, and cited Israeli intelligence that Tehran was approaching the “point of no return” on its nuclear programme.Iran called the Israeli air assault “a declaration of war” and fired dozens of missiles at Israel later Friday and Saturday.International calls for restraint are multiplying, as fears grow the Middle East could be on the threshold of a broader conflict.Here is what we know:- Nuclear sites hit -Israel’s attacks started in the early hours of Friday, a day of rest and prayer in Iran, and continued through the day, on various sites.A key target was a vast underground nuclear site in Natanz, which Israel hit several times, according to Iranian state television.Radiation levels outside the facility “remained unchanged”, the head of the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said.Iran said there was limited damage to its Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites.- Commanders killed -Top brass killed included the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, and armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, with replacements swiftly named by supreme leader Ali Khamenei.The Revolutionary Guards said its aerospace commander Amirali Hajizadeh was also killed. He was in charge of Iran’s ballistic missile forces.Iranian media said several nuclear scientists were killed.Iran’s ambassador to the UN said 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.- Ongoing strikes -Additional strikes hit sites in Iran’s northwestern East Azerbaijan province, with 18 people killed there, state news agency IRNA said.An Israeli military spokesman said “more than 200 targets” were hit, including nuclear facilities and air bases.Netanyahu’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said “there is currently no plan to kill” Khamenei and other political leaders.Internet restrictions were imposed across Iran, the country’s communications ministry said, adding they would be lifted “once normalcy returns”.- Iran’s response -Iran launched dozens of missiles at Israel, the Revolutionary Guards and Israel said, hours after the Israeli military said “most” of the 100 drones fired by Iran were intercepted outside Israeli territory.Early Saturday, Iran launched a fresh wave of attacks, according to state media, with the Israeli military sounding air raid sirens and reporting more inbound missiles from Iran.Israel said its air force was “operating to intercept and strike where necessary to eliminate the threat”.Israeli rescuers said Saturday that they were treating 21 people wounded in a rocket strike that hit the country’s coast.Rescuers said earlier that 34 people had been wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.- US involvement? -Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the Israeli attacks “a declaration of war” and urged action from the UN Security Council, which held an emergency meeting on Friday.Tehran had previously warned it would hit US military bases in the Middle East if conflict occurred. The United States pulled out non-essential personnel from several sites days ahead of the Israeli attack.US President Donald Trump said Israel fully informed him of its raids ahead of time, but insisted Washington was not involved.He warned Iran that the “next planned attacks” will be “even more brutal” and said Tehran should cut a deal to roll back its nuclear programme “before there is nothing left”.Trump has repeatedly said he will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.His secretary of state Marco Rubio warned Iran not to target US interests or personnel in the Middle East.- Nuclear programme -Tehran has long denied seeking atomic bombs but had been enriching uranium to 60 percent — far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely obsolete 2015 agreement with major powers.However, Iran’s 60-percent enrichment level is still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.The United States and Iran had been holding talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme. The next round, scheduled for Sunday in Oman, now looks to be cancelled.- Reactions -The attack, and Iran’s response, is fuelling international alarm.Many capitals have urged restraint, fearing the consequences if the Israel-Iran conflict widened and drew in the United States, and if Middle East oil production and shipments were impacted.The UN’s atomic energy agency planned an emergency meeting for Monday.UN chief Antonio Guterres called on Israel and Iran to halt their conflict, saying: “Peace and diplomacy must prevail.”Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria closed their airspaces, and several airlines cancelled flights servicing the region.Oil prices surged on Friday, trading sharply up to around $75 a barrel before falling back a little.Analysts underlined the risk to the 20 percent of the world’s crude oil supplies that are shipped through the narrow Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.burs/rmb/gv/ami/sco/cms

Iran struck Israel early Saturday with barrages of missiles after a massive onslaught targeted the Islamic republic’s nuclear and military facilities, and killed several top generals.Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel overnight, with its military calling on residents to take refuge in bomb shelters Saturday morning.The Israeli military said dozens of missiles — some intercepted — had been fired in the latest salvos from Iran.Smoke was billowing above skyscrapers in downtown Tel Aviv, an AFP journalist reported, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.Israel’s firefighting service said its teams were responding to the aftermath of Iranian missile strikes, including working to rescue people trapped in a high-rise building.Rescuers said 34 people had been wounded in the Gush Dan area, including a woman who later died of her injuries, according to Israeli media reports.Resident Chen Gabizon told AFP he ran to an underground shelter after receiving an alert notification.”After a few minutes, we just heard a very big explosion, everything was shaking, smoke, dust, everything was all over the place,” he said.In Iran’s capital Tehran early Saturday, fire and heavy smoke billowed from Mehrabad airport, an AFP journalist said, as local media reported a blast in the area.Iran said earlier it had activated its air-defence system and explosions could be heard across the capital.Dozens of people took to the streets of Tehran overnight to cheer their country’s military response, with some waving national flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans.Iran’s ambassador to the UN said Friday that 78 people had been killed and 320 wounded in the first wave of strikes by Israel.After a day of back-and-forth bombardments, UN chief Antonio Guterres called for the two nations to cease fire.”Enough escalation. Time to stop. Peace and diplomacy must prevail,” he wrote on X late Friday.- Calls for dialogue -US officials said they were helping Israel defend against the missile attacks, even as Washington insisted it had nothing to do with Israel’s strikes on Iran.US President Donald Trump agreed on a call with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that “dialogue and diplomacy” were needed to calm the crisis, Starmer’s office said.Trump also spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday, US officials said, without elaborating.Iran’s missile salvo came hours after Israel said its widespread air raids had killed several top Iranian generals, including most of the senior leadership of the Revolutionary Guards’ air force.It had launched several rounds of strikes that hit about 200 targets including nuclear facilities and air bases.Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to bring Israel “to ruin” during a televised address.In Israel, Netanyahu issued a statement calling on the Iranian public to unite against their own government. But he also warned more attacks were coming. “In the past 24 hours, we have taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime’s most significant enrichment facility and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal,” Netanyahu said.While stressing that it was not involved in the Israeli attacks, the United States warned Iran not to attack its personnel or interests.Tehran nevertheless said Washington would be “responsible for consequences”.- Commanders killed -The strikes killed Iran’s highest-ranking military officer, armed forces chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri, and the head of the Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, Iranian media reported.Khamenei swiftly appointed new commanders to replace those killed.”The senior chain of command of the air force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had assembled in an underground command centre to prepare for an attack on the State of Israel,” the Israeli military said, adding that its attacks had killed most of them.Iran confirmed that the Guards’ aerospace commander had been killed, along with “a group of brave and dedicated fighters”.AFP images showed a gaping hole in the side of a Tehran residential building that appeared to have sustained a targeted strike.Tasnim news agency said six nuclear scientists were among the dead.Oil prices surged while stocks sank on the Israeli strikes.- Radiation ‘unchanged’ in Natanz area -The conflict raised questions as to whether Sunday’s sixth round of talks planned between the United States and Iran to seek a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme would go ahead in Oman.After the first wave of strikes on Friday, Trump urged Iran to “make a deal”, adding that Washington was “hoping to get back to the negotiating table”.Iran confirmed that above-ground sections of the Natanz enrichment plant had been destroyed, but the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said radiation levels outside the site “remained unchanged”.”Most of the damage is on the surface level,” said the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran’s spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi.Iran said there was only limited damage to the Fordo and Isfahan nuclear sites.The United States and other Western governments have repeatedly accused Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, an ambition it has consistently denied.Netanyahu said Israeli intelligence had concluded that Iran was approaching the “point of no return” on its nuclear programme.Israel had called for global action after the IAEA accused Iran on Thursday of non-compliance with its obligations.Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set by a largely moribund 2015 agreement with major powers, but still short of the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear warhead.

Pro-Palestinian student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil remained in US detention Friday despite an expected release, his lawyer said, following reported accusations of inaccuracies in his permanent residency application.US District Judge Michael Fabiarz had issued an order Wednesday that the government could not detain or deport Khalil, a legal permanent resident, based on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil posed a national security threat.The order gave the government until Friday to release Khalil. But by Friday afternoon, the Trump administration “represented that the Petitioner is being detained on another, second charge,” the judge wrote.The Department of Homeland Security has provided the court with press clippings from various American tabloids suggesting Khalil, who is married to a US citizen, had failed to disclose certain information about his work or involvement in a campaign to boycott Israel when applying for his permanent resident green card, ABC News reported.”The government is now using cruel, transparent delay tactics to keep him away from his wife and newborn son ahead of their first Father’s Day as a family,” Khalil attorney Amy Greer said in a statement, referring to the US holiday observed on Sunday.”Instead of celebrating together, he is languishing in ICE detention as punishment for his advocacy on behalf of his fellow Palestinians. It is unjust, it is shocking, and it is disgraceful.”Since his March 8 arrest by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s willingness to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at New York’s Columbia University, Khalil was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to a detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.His wife Noor Abdalla, a Michigan-born dentist, gave birth to their son while Khalil was in detention. 

An Afghan man pleaded guilty on Friday to plotting to carry out an attack on US election day on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) group, the Justice Department said.Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was arrested in the central US state of Oklahoma in October, several weeks before the November 5 presidential election.He pleaded guilty in a federal court in Oklahoma City to charges of conspiring to provide material support to IS and attempting to receive firearms and ammunition to carry out an attack.He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and up to 15 years in prison for the firearms charge.”By pledging allegiance to IS and plotting an attack against innocent Americans on Election Day, this defendant endangered lives and gravely betrayed the nation that gave him refuge,” US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.”Today’s guilty plea guarantees he will be held accountable, stripped of his immigration status, and permanently removed from the United States.”Tawhedi and a co-conspirator, Abdullah Haji Zada, sought to buy two AK-47 rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to carry out a “mass-casualty attack” on November 5, according to court documents.The seller turned out to be an undercover FBI employee.  Zada, 18, pleaded guilty in April to the firearms charge and is awaiting sentencing.According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 on a special immigrant visa.

US President Donald Trump urged Iran Friday to make a deal or face “even more brutal” attacks by Israel, as Washington said it was helping its key ally defend itself against Iranian retaliation.But Trump also kept the door open for negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program, as the president who boasted he had “no wars” in his first term tries to avoid getting dragged into one in his second.Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Friday, a White House official told AFP. He said earlier that Israel had let him know in advance about its strikes on Iran’s military top brass and nuclear facilities.After Iran launched barrages of ballistic missiles on Friday, the United States was “assisting in shooting down missiles targeting Israel,” two US officials told AFP, without giving detail on the extent of Washington’s role.The US president also spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who both stressed the need for dialogue. He also reportedly spoke to Saudi and Qatari leaders.Trump attended a National Security Council meeting in the White House Situation Room as his team worked on the crisis. An aide posted a black and white picture of a grim-faced, purse-lipped Trump striding through the West Wing.But the flurry of meetings and diplomatic calls came as Trump trod a tightrope between backing Israel and seeking the nuclear deal he promised he could reach with Iran.Israel struck Iran just hours after Trump publicly urged Netanyahu to hold off on an attack, with the first missiles landing as the US president hosted a picnic for lawmakers on the White House South Lawn.”There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Friday. – ‘Excellent’ -“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left… JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” he said. Trump said that he “gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal.” But in a series of calls with US media later, he wavered between backing Israel’s “excellent” strikes and calling for a return to the negotiating table.”I think it’s been excellent,” ABC News quoted him as saying about Israel’s offensive. “And there’s more to come. A lot more.”Then shortly afterwards he stressed the possibility of a second chance, in an interview with NBC: “They missed the opportunity to make a deal. Now, they may have another opportunity. We’ll see.”Trump also gave mixed signals about the extent of US involvement.Secretary of State Marco Rubio had said Thursday that the United States was “not involved” in the strikes and warned Iran not to retaliate against any US forces in the region.Trump, however, said on Truth Social on Friday that Israel had acted because a 60-day deadline that he had set for Iran had run out, implying that the two acted in concert.He also boasted about the “finest” US equipment that Israel had used — a day before a huge parade in Washington, on Trump’s 79th birthday, featuring US aircraft and tanks.Trump earlier told Fox News he had been aware of the Israeli strikes before they happened, and stressed that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear bomb.”During Trump’s first term, he pulled the United States out of a landmark agreement to relieve sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.The United States and Iran have had several rounds of talks since Trump returned to the White House, but after initially striking an optimistic tone, the discussions have foundered in recent days.

For President Donald Trump, few goals on the world stage have been more explicit — he will not drag the United States into another “forever war.”Yet Israel’s massive strikes on Iran will test that promise as never before, potentially setting up a showdown with his base as Trump decides how much support the United States will offer.Trump had publicly called for Israel not to strike as he sought a negotiated solution, and his roving envoy Steve Witkoff had been scheduled to meet Iranian officials for the sixth time Sunday.Trump, who hours earlier warned that an attack would cause “massive conflict,” afterward praised Israeli strikes as “excellent.” He boasted that Israel had “the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the world” thanks to the United States — and was planning more strikes unless Iran agrees on a deal.Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted that the United States was not involved in the strikes and warned Iran not to retaliate against the thousands of US troops stationed in nearby Arab countries.A US official, however, confirmed that the United States was helping Israel shoot down retaliatory missiles fired Friday by Iran.”The US has calculated that it can help Israel and that the Iranians will obviously be aware of this, but at the end of the day, at least at the public level, the US stays out,” said Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.The hope is that “the Iranians will do a quick cost/benefit analysis and decide it is not worth the fight,” Vatanka said.He said Iranian leaders are for now focused on staying alive, but could decide either to swallow a tough deal — or to internationalize the conflict further by causing chaos in the oil-rich Gulf, potentially sending oil prices soaring and pressuring Trump.- ‘America First’ impulse -Most key lawmakers of Trump’s Republican Party quickly rallied behind Israel, whose prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a hero for many on the US right and has long called Iran an existential threat.But Trump’s populist “America First” base has been skeptical. Tucker Carlson, the prominent media commentator who counseled Trump against a US strike on Iran in the first term, has called fears of Tehran building a nuclear bomb overblown, saying neither Iran nor Ukraine warrants US military resources.Carlson wrote on X after the Israeli strike that there was a divide in Trump’s orbit between “those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers.”Trump has brought outspoken non-interventionists directly into his administration.In an unusually political video this week, Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, warned after a visit to Hiroshima that “warmongers” were putting the world at risk of nuclear catastrophe.In a speech in Riyadh last month, Trump denounced decades of US interventionism in the Middle East and said, “My greatest hope is to be a peacemaker and to be a unifier. I don’t like war.”- How far to back Israel? -Daniel Shapiro, who served as US ambassador to Israel under former president Barack Obama, said it had been certain the United States would back Israel’s defense against Iranian retaliation.But Trump will face a harder decision on “whether to use the United States’ unique capabilities to destroy Tehran’s underground nuclear facilities and prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon,” said Shapiro, now at the Atlantic Council.”The decision will split his advisers and political base, amid accusations, and perhaps his own misgivings, that Netanyahu is attempting to drag him into war.”Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party widely revile Netanyahu, including over Israel’s bloody offensive in Gaza.”This attack by Netanyahu is pure sabotage,” said Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro.”What does ‘America First’ even mean if Trump allows Netanyahu to drag the country into a war Americans don’t want?” he wrote on social media.Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the progressive Center for International Policy, said that China — identified by Trump as the top threat — could seize the moment, perhaps by moving on Taiwan, as it sees the United States as even more distracted.”Even without direct involvement, Washington now faces the prospect of indefinite resupply, intelligence and diplomatic backing for Israel, just as the war in Ukraine intensifies and global crises multiply,” Toossi said.”Wars are easy to ignite, but once unleashed, they tend to spiral beyond control, and rarely end on the terms of those who start them.”

Oil prices soared and stocks sank Friday after Israel launched strikes on Iran, prompting retaliation from Tehran and stoking fears of a full-blown war.Oil futures rocketed more than 13 percent at one point before coming back to gains nearer seven percent, reigniting worries about a renewed spike to inflation.After a down day in Europe and …

Oil prices soar, stocks slide after Israel strikes Iran Read More »

Oil prices soared and stocks sank Friday after Israel launched strikes on Iran, prompting retaliation from Tehran and stoking fears of a full-blown war.Oil futures rocketed more than 13 percent at one point before coming back to gains nearer seven percent, reigniting worries about a renewed spike to inflation.After a down day in Europe and Asia, Wall Street indices spent the entire day in the red before finishing the day down more than one percent.”After having a pretty solid run in May and the first part of June, markets found an excuse to take some profits,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist of B. Riley Wealth.Shares in major airlines tumbled after flights around the Middle East were suspended.The dollar climbed higher, while gold — viewed as a safe haven investment — was close to its record high of above $3,500 an ounce set in April, having added around 30 percent since the start of the year.The drop in equities and rise in safe-haven assets “all go to show just how fragile sentiment remains in the face of major geopolitical events,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at financial services provider Trade Nation. “The question now is whether investors view this flare-up as a relatively contained incident within the longstanding animosity between Israel and Iran, or if this is the spark that ignites a conflagration across the Middle East and then beyond?”On Friday, Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel in a counter-strike just hours after the Israeli strikes targeting the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities and bases.Air raid sirens and explosions rang out across Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airways to issue a word of caution, saying he expected “several waves of Iranian attacks” in response.Smoke could later be seen billowing above the skyscrapers in downtown Tel Aviv, according to an AFP journalist, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked dozens of targets in Israel.While Friday was a decisively negative day for equities, analysts described the selling as orderly.Investors “are paring back some risk, but this is hardly a panicky sell-off,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.The market is partially in “a wait and see approach to what happens over the weekend because it’s obviously a very fluid volatile situation,” Sosnick added.But further escalation would add more upward pressure to oil prices.Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury, said: “The big fear for investors is that an escalation to the tensions will not only raise the risk of a prolonged conflict, but it could disrupt Iranian oil production.”Rising oil prices have “broader implications,” Ryan said, noting that they “could both weigh on the global growth outlook and keep inflationary pressures higher for longer.”This would complicate the decision-making of major central banks, which will have to decide between raising interest rates to curb inflation or cutting them to stimulate economies.- Key figures at around 2040 GMT -Brent North Sea Crude: UP 7.0 percent at $74.23 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: UP 7.3 percent at $72.98 per barrelNew York – Dow:  DOWN 1.8 percent at 42,197.79 (close)New York – S&P 500: DOWN 1.1 percent at 5,976.97 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: DOWN 1.3 percent at 19,406.83 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 8,850.63 (close)Paris – CAC 40: DOWN 1.0 percent at 7,684.68 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 1.1 percent at 23,516.23 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 37,834.25 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.6 percent at 23,892.56 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.8 percent at 3,377.00 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1540 from $1.1584 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3560 from $1.3613Dollar/yen: UP at 144.04 yen from 143.48 yenEuro/pound: UP at 85.11 pence from 85.09 penceburs-jmb/sst