Follow the latest news after Israel launched strikes at Iran, a dramatic escalation in long-running tensions between the two countries.

The Indian rupee is expected to slip past 86 to the U.S. dollar at the open on Friday, hit by surging oil prices and sliding risk assets after Israel attacked targets in Iran.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening that Israel had struck “Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz,” he was signaling the scope of his country’s ambitions in the largest strike it has ever aimed at Iran: It sought to destroy the beating heart of the Iranian nuclear program.

Gold prices climbed on Friday to their highest point in more than a month, on track for a weekly gain, as investors sought safe-haven assets after Israel's strike on Iran heightened Middle East tensions.

AMANEY A. JAMAL is Co-Founder and Co-Principal Investigator at Arab Barometer, Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

All eyes are on oil markets and the key Strait of Hormuz, the markets’ crossroads, but an all-out war between Israel and Iran would pose a serious threat to eastern Mediterranean natural-gas fields — and risk spilling into Europe’s liquefied natural-gas supply.

President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that U.S. personnel are being "moved out" of parts of the Middle East amid escalating tensions with Israel and Iran.

The envoy, Mike Huckabee, said in media interviews that “Muslim countries” should build a Palestinian state on their territory, which would be a sharp departure from decades of U.S. foreign policy.