France's President Emmanuel Macron on Friday urged the US and Iran to resume nuclear talks following a wave of Israeli strikes against Iran.

"Iran bears a heavy responsibility in the destabilisation of the whole region," he said after Western nations in recent days accused Tehran of deliberately escalating its nuclear programme, despite several rounds of US-Iran talks.

"We call for the resumption of dialogue and the reaching of a deal."

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Hossein Salami, killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran Friday, was a veteran officer close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and known for his tirades against Israel and its main ally, the United States.

"If you make the slightest mistake, we will open the gates of hell for you," the white-bearded general warned Tehran's archenemies during a tour of an underground missile base in January.

Airlines in the Gulf cancelled flights to many Middle East destinations on Friday as some governments closed their airspace following Israeli strikes on Iran.

Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, said it had cancelled flights to and from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran after Israel launched the strikes.

Several flights scheduled for Friday and one Tehran flight on Saturday were listed as cancelled on the airline's website.

Before Israeli strikes on Friday, Washington and Tehran had held several rounds of talks on Iran's nuclear programme, as concerns mounted about its rapid expansion.

Iran has significantly ramped up its nuclear programme in recent years, after a landmark deal with world powers curbing its nuclear activities in exchange for sanction relief began to unravel in 2018 when the United States unilaterally withdrew.

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.

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.

When US President Donald Trump publicly implored Israel not to attack Iran, he declared, once again, that his goal was to be a peacemaker.

Hours later on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- one of Trump's closest international allies -- unleashed a major military campaign described as a "preemptive" strike against Iran's nuclear program.

The attack marks the latest setback for Trump's lofty goal set out at the start of his second term of being a "man of peace."

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.

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.

After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun's iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.

Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.

"Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir," said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.