Trump urges Iran to make a deal after Israeli attacks

US President Donald Trump urged Iran on Friday to make a deal on its nuclear programme before it faced more attacks from Israel that he said would be "even more brutal."

"Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left," Trump said in a post on his social media platform.

Israel launched an array of strikes against dozens of Iranian targets on Friday, hitting nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders during the start of an operation to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.

Israel said it had struck Iranian nuclear targets to block Tehran from developing atomic weapons, even as the Trump administration was preparing to hold a sixth round of talks on Sunday on Tehran's escalating uranium enrichment programme.

Trump said Friday he had given Tehran a 60-day ultimatum, which expired on Thursday, to make a deal. He encouraged Tehran to take advantage of a "second chance."

Amid his push for diplomacy, the US president praised Israel's attacks in brief telephone interviews with television outlets early Friday.

In a phone interview with Reuters, Trump said it was not clear if Iran's nuclear programme had survived, but it was not too late for Iran to make a deal to halt the Israeli assault.

Israeli officials said it may be some time before the extent is clear of damage to the underground nuclear site at Natanz, where Iran has refined uranium to levels Western countries have long said are suitable for a bomb rather than civilian use.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only. The UN nuclear watchdog concluded this week that it was in violation of its obligations under the global non-proliferation treaty.

As evening fell on Friday, Iranian media reported a number of explosions in what appeared to be a second wave of strikes by Israel.

Iranian media showed images of destroyed apartment blocks, and said nearly 80 civilians were killed in attacks that targeted nuclear scientists in their beds and wounded more than 300 people.

Meanwhile, Israel said that Iran had launched around 100 drones towards Israeli territory in retaliation on Friday, but Iran denied this and there were no reports of any drones reaching Israeli targets.

The United Nations Security Council was due to meet on Friday at Tehran's request. Iran said in a letter to the Council that it would respond decisively and proportionally to Israel's "unlawful" and "cowardly" acts.

The price of crude leapt on fears of wider retaliatory attacks across a major oil-producing region, although there were no reports that oil production or storage was damaged. OPEC said the escalation did not justify any immediate changes to oil supply.