Air defenses were activated in Tehran and Rasht early Friday morning, with huge explosions heard in western Tehran after Israel launched strikes on parts of Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump will make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to order a strike against Iran, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing on Thursday.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem reaffirmed the group's alignment with Iran on Thursday, stating that Hezbollah will "act as it deems suitable" in confronting what he described as "joint American-Israeli aggression" against Iran.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will travel to Geneva on Friday for talks with his French and German counterparts, as well as EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and Iran's foreign minister, to push for a diplomatic resolution to Iran's nuclear program, the British Foreign Office said on Thursday.

(With input from Xinhua)