U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday announced a major attack against Iran, vowing to "annihilate" its navy and missile sites and telling Iranians their "hour of freedom" had come from the Islamic republic.

In a video address after the United States and Israel started bombing Iran, Trump made clear that the goal was sweeping –- the toppling of the Islamic republic in charge since the 1979 revolution.

The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday, with Israel's public broadcaster reporting that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been targeted, as the Islamic republic retaliated with barrages of missiles at Gulf states and Israel.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic republic, said they had targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, other American interests in the Gulf and Israel.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are engaged in efforts to halt deadly fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, a source with knowledge of the talks told AFP on Friday.

The diplomatic drive comes as fears of a spiraling conflict grew after Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan, declaring that they were in an "open war" with the Taliban.

The leading candidate to become Iraq's next prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, met with U.S. diplomat Tom Barrack on Friday after refusing to withdraw his nomination despite the U.S. threatening to stop supporting the country if he returns to the post.

Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey, has recently visited Iraq multiple times to meet with senior officials.

Israel's top court on Friday moved to allow international aid groups to keep operating in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian territories as Israeli strikes killed at least five people across the war-torn enclave.

The Supreme Court's order, which followed a petition from 17 aid groups, effectively halted an earlier Israeli government decision that barred aid groups for refusing to comply with Israel's new rules.

American sympathies in the Middle East have shifted dramatically toward the Palestinians, according to new Gallup polling, after decades of overwhelming support for the Israelis.

That shift accelerated during the war in Gaza. Three years ago, 54% of Americans sympathized more with the Israelis, compared to 31% for the Palestinians.

The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem announced on Friday it was allowing non-emergency government personnel and family members to leave Israel "due to safety risks," adding that people who wished to leave should do so while flights were still available.

"On February 27, 2026, the Department of State authorized the departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of U.S. government personnel from Mission Israel due to safety risks," the embassy said on its website.

Iran said Friday that in order to reach a deal, the United States will have to drop its "excessive demands", tempering the optimism expressed after talks seen as a last-ditch bid to avert war.

The Oman-mediated talks follow repeated threats from President Donald Trump to strike Iran, and with the United States conducting its biggest military build-up in the region in decades.

Iran and the United States held hours of indirect negotiations Thursday over Tehran's nuclear program but walked away without a deal, leaving the danger of another Mideast war on the table as the U.S. has gathered a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the region.

Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who mediated the talks in Geneva, said there had been "significant progress in the negotiation" without elaborating.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday that the latest round of talks with the United States dealt with the nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions, adding that negotiators made "good progress".

"We made very good progress and entered into the elements of an agreement very seriously, both in the nuclear field and in the sanctions field," Araghchi told state TV after the talks in Geneva ended.