Shapiro served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East until January—charged with, among other things, considering scenarios in which tensions between Israel and Iran escalated into all-out war and preparing U.

Trump had good reason to try to constrain Netanyahu while nuclear talks with Iran proceeded, but Israel decided instead to try to behead the ‘octopus’.

Iran pulls out of US nuclear talks after Israeli airstrikes hit key nuclear sites. With tensions soaring, questions remain over the future of diplomacy.

Despite assertions by some critics that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the bombing of Iran to sabotage Trump’s diplomacy with Tehran, most of the US president’s political party has come out in favour of the strikes. Several Democrats criticised the strikes outright, stressing that war with Iran would not serve US interests.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear bomb, “one way or the other.”

Pakistan’s central bank is expected to hold its policy rate on Monday, a Reuters poll showed, as many analysts shifted their previous view of a cut in the wake of Israel's military strike on Iran, citing inflation risks from rising global commodity prices.

Oil prices surged and Asian shares were lower Friday after Israel struck Iranian nuclear and military targets in an attack that raised the risk of all-out war between them. U.S. benchmark crude oil rose by $3.

Israel has launched unprecedented attack on Iran, targeting the heart of nation’s nuclear program and senior military leaders.

KARACHI (Reuters) -Pakistan’s central bank is expected to hold its policy rate on Monday, a Reuters poll showed, as many analysts shifted their previous view of a cut in the wake of Israel's military strike on Iran, citing inflation risks from rising global commodity prices.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran said several top commanders and six nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli strikes on Friday targeting Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic weapon.