A drone attack claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi killed three people on Monday and sparked a fire at Abu Dhabi’s international airport.

Emirati police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. Several people were also wounded at an industrial area where Abu Dhabi’s state-owned energy company runs a pipeline network and an oil tanker storage facility. The police said they suffered minor to moderate injuries.

“Our commitment to the security of the UAE is unwavering and we stand beside our Emirati partners against all threats to their territory,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement Monday afternoon.

Senior Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash blamed the Houthis for the attack, saying on Twitter that Emirati authorities were handling the rebel group’s “vicious attack on some civilian facilities” in the UAE’s capital with “transparency and responsibility.”

“The tampering of the region’s security by terrorist militias is too weak to affect the stability and safety in which we live,” he tweeted.

Three transport tankers caught fire at the oil facility, while another fire was sparked at an extension of Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Police said an investigation was underway and that preliminary findings indicate there were small flying objects, possibly belonging to drones, that fell in the two areas and may have caused the explosion and fire. They said there was no significant damage from the incidents, without offering further details.

Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed they were behind an attack targeting the United Arab Emirates on Monday, but they did not offer details. Although the UAE has largely withdrawn its own forces from the war in Yemen, it is still actively engaged in the conflict and supports Yemeni militias fighting the Houthis.

The incident comes as the Houthis face pressure and are suffering heavy losses. Yemeni forces, allied and backed by the UAE, have pushed back the rebels in key southern and central provinces, dashing Houthi efforts to complete their control of the entire northern half of Yemen.

Yemen’s government-aligned forces reclaimed the entire southern province of Shabwa from the Houthis earlier this month and made advances in nearby Marib province. They were aided by the UAE-backed Giants Brigades and had help from Saudi airstrikes.

Saudi Arabia condemned Monday’s attack targeting Abu Dhabi, describing it as “a cowardly terrorist attack” that shows the dangers posed by the Houthis. Saudi Arabia, as well as the United States, U.N. experts and others have accused Iran of supplying arms to the Houthis.

The UAE was a key member of the Saudi-led coalition that has waged war against the Houthis since 2015, trying to restore the internationally backed government, ousted by the rebels the previous year.

While Emirati troops have been killed over the course of the conflict, now in its eight year, the war has not directly affected daily life in the wider UAE, a country with a vast foreign workforce that is also home to Dubai, a glitzy city of skyscrapers and five-star hotels.

The airport fire in Abu Dhabi was described by police as “minor” and took place at an extension of the international airport that is still under construction. For years, the airport home to Etihad Airways has been building its new Midfield Terminal, but it was not clear if that was where the fire took place.

Etihad Airways said “precautionary measures resulted in a short disruption for a small number of flights” and that airport operations have returned to normal. Abu Dhabi Airports did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The other blast struck three petroleum transport tankers near a complex for the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in the Musaffah industrial area. The company describes it as a pipeline and terminal facility located some 22 kilometers (13 miles) from the center of the city of Abu Dhabi, where 36 storage tanks also supply transport trucks carrying fuel.

It is also a short distance from Al-Dhafra Air Base, a military installation that hosts U.S. and French forces. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Andrew Clark, the Al-Dhafra Air Base commander for American forces, said in a statement to The Associated Press that “no incidents” affected the base amid the attack.

“U.S. forces are ready and available to assist and support their Emirati partners if requested,” he said.

The location of the ADNOC facility where the tankers caught fire is approximately 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of Saada, the Houthis’ stronghold in Yemen.

The incident comes as South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in is visiting the UAE. During a meeting with Emirati Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on Sunday, the two countries reportedly reached a preliminary deal valued at some $3.5 billion sell mid-range South Korean surface-to-air missiles to the UAE.

At an event attended by the South Korean president earlier in the day, Emirati Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei declined to comment on the explosion at ADNOC’s facility, telling the AP only that police would provide updates on their investigation.

The Houthis have used bomb-laden drones to launch crude and imprecise attacks aimed at Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The group has also launched missiles at Saudi airports, oil facilities and pipelines, and used booby-trapped boats for attacks in key shipping routes.

Earlier this month, the Houthis seized an Emirati-flagged ship in the Red Sea, a crucial route for international trade and energy shipments.

Though there have been civilian deaths in Saudi Arabia from Houthi attacks, there had been no deaths previously reported in the UAE.

The overwhelming number of civilian deaths in the conflict have been in Yemen. The war has killed 130,000 people in Yemen — both civilians and fighters — and has exacerbated hunger and famine across the impoverished country.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst at the risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, noted that while the Houthis have claimed responsibility for an attack on the UAE, Iraqi-based militias have also threatened the UAE in response to alleged Emirati interference in Iraqi politics.

He said the attack highlights the missile and drone threat faced by the UAE and the region’s other main oil producers. He said unless Gulf Arab states find a solution to diffuse wider regional tensions “they will remain vulnerable to attacks.”

Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre and Jon Gambrell in Dubai and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report. Military Times senior managing editor Howard Altman also contributed to this report.

The U.S. 5th Fleet said Thursday that the five-day multilateral maritime exercise with Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain began on Wednesday and includes at-sea training focused on search and seizure tactics aboard the USS Portland transport dock ship.

The drill comes a little more than a year after the UAE and subsequently Bahrain normalized ties with Israel despite strong criticism by Palestinians over the formal recognition of Israel.

An Israeli navy officer said it is the first time the three nations have shared maritime training exercises. The UAE also sent a delegation to an Israeli-hosted air force drill last month.

“This is the first time at sea, and actually it’s exciting that young officers are meeting young officers,” the officer told reporters, speaking spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines. “We’ll do it step by step.”

Their participation reflects their shared concerns over Iranian threats to regional shipping. Israel has accused Iran of trying to use the high seas to smuggle weapons to Israel’s enemies. It also has accused Iran of carrying out a series of attacks on civilian ships with Israeli ties.

Israel has acknowledged beefing up its naval presence in the Red Sea in response to what it says is heightened Iranian aggression.

The statement by the 5th Fleet did not specify where in the Red Sea the exercise was taking place. The sea, which connects the Mediterranean Sea by the Suez Canal with the Indian Ocean by the Gulf of Aden is one of the world’s key oil shipping routes.

Over the past years, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have targeted oil shipments in the south of the waterway. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have waged war against the Houthis since 2015, in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

The Taliban wrote to the United Nations requesting to address the U.N. General Assembly meeting of leaders that is underway in New York. They argue they have all the requirements needed for recognition of a government. The U.N. has effectively responded to the Taliban’s request by signaling: Not so fast.

Afghanistan, which joined the U.N. in 1946 as an early member state, is scheduled to speak last at the General Assembly leaders’ session on Monday. With no meeting yet held by the U.N. committee that decides challenges to credentials, it appears almost certain that Afghanistan’s current ambassador will give the address this year — or that no one will at all.

In multiple U.N. speeches this past week, a number of world leaders mentioned Afghanistan, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Afghanistan’s neighbors, such as Pakistan, Iran and Uzbekistan.

The United States, which withdrew all its forces from the country last month in a chaotic airlift that ended America’s “forever war,” says it is critical that the international community remains united in ensuring the Taliban meets a range of commitments before granting legitimacy or support beyond humanitarian aid.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this is the message he delivered to the U.N. Security Council and others on the sidelines of the General Assembly this week.

The U.S. has “significant leverage when it comes to the Taliban,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Friday. “But we have all the more leverage when we work in coordination and in harmony with our allies and partners around the globe,” he added.

The U.N. can withhold or bestow formal acknowledgement on the Taliban, and use this as crucial leverage to exact assurances on human rights, girls’ access to education and political concessions. This is where the power — and relevance, even — of the 76-year-old world body still holds.

Afghanistan is a good, and perhaps extreme, representative case study of precisely why the United Nations was founded in the aftermath of World War II, said Rohinton Medhora, president of the Center for International Governance Innovation in Canada.

“If you’re the U.N. and you want to represent the family of nations, then you want absolutely everyone of the family there — even you know, the distant cousin that not everyone’s proud of,” he said. “So the U.N. needs Afghanistan and countries to demonstrate the value of many of its operations.”

In Afghanistan, the United Nations can deploy the weight of its vast aid and development programs to show just how crucial its often underfunded agencies are in providing stability and security. The country is facing multiple humanitarian crises and near-total poverty due to fallout from the political situation.

There are already growing calls for aid to be contingent on ensuring girls’ access to education. Despite promises to be inclusive and open, the Taliban have yet to allow older girls back to school, have curtailed local media freedoms and returned to brutal practices like publicly hanging dead bodies in city squares.

“Taliban does not represent the will of the Afghan people,” Afghanistan’s currently accredited ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Nasir Andisha, told The Associated Press.

If the United Nations recognizes the Taliban’s claim to power, Andisha said, then it sends a corrosive message to others — be it in Yemen or in Myanmar — that they can take up guns, create violence, join with U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

“I think for the world, for the United Nations, it’s time to use this as a leverage,” Andisha said.

The Taliban’s appointed U.N. representative, Suhail Shaheen, a former negotiator and political spokesman, told The Associated Press that his government should be admitted into the club of nations and that “all borders, territory and major cities of Afghanistan are in our control.”

“We have support of our people and because of their support, we were able to continue a successful struggle for independence of our country which culminated in our independence,” he said. “We have all the requirements needed for recognition of a government. So we hope the UN as an neutral World Body recognize the current government of Afghanistan.”

More than a dozen ministers in the all-Taliban Cabinet are on a U.N. blacklist, including the group’s foreign minister, whom Andisha and other Afghan diplomats abroad are refusing to speak to.

Andisha was serving in Geneva under the U.S.-backed government of Ashraf Ghani when the president fled Afghanistan Aug. 15 to seek refuge in the United Arab Emirates as the Taliban encircled the capital. Ghani’s government swiftly fell thereafter.

Andisha is still holding meetings with representatives from countries around the world, imploring them to push for the resuscitation of intra-Afghan peace talks. He wants the United Nations to make clear that joining its ranks is not only about “holding a country under the barrels of your guns and having enough population taken hostage.”

Meanwhile, Qatar has urged countries not to boycott the Taliban, and Pakistan called on nations to avoid isolating the Taliban, and to incentivize them to hold to their promises of renouncing terrorism and being inclusive.

During the Taliban’s repressive time in power in the late 1990′s, only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognized their legitimacy. During that era, the U.N. refused to recognize their government and gave Afghanistan’s seat to the previous, warlord-dominated government.

The group was then ousted from power in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition after the 9/11 attacks for harboring al-Qaida.

Medhora, of the Center for International Governance Innovation, said the U.N. has levers it can use through its various agencies, such as UNICEF, which focuses on children, UNHCR, which assists refugees, and the World Food Program, all “where the actual work of the U.N. gets done.” This is another area where the United States has major sway as the the largest donor to the United Nations, contributing nearly one-fifth of funding for the body’s collective budget in 2019, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Enayat Najafizada, who runs an independent think tank in Kabul that monitors security issues in Afghanistan’s provinces, said the U.N. should also facilitate negotiations between Afghan groups and bring the various countries with a history of meddling in the nation on board for the sake of regional security.

“Without forming an inclusive government, the country will move to a civil war,” said Najafizada, founder of The Institute of War and Peace Studies.

Although what comes next for Afghanistan is far from certain, it is clear the Taliban do not want to be seen as global pariahs, said Kamal Alam, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

“They want a seat at the U.N. They want to go to Davos. They like the private jet lifestyle,” he said, referring to the group’s political elite who reside in exile in Qatar.

“But that’s only the political leaders. The foot soldiers on the ground, there’s no such thing as ‘the new Taliban’,” he said. “There is no new Taliban. Everything they’re doing is a tactic to get recognition as well as not be isolated.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended the opening ceremony in Qatar, where the meetings are taking place and where the Taliban maintain a political office. The start of negotiations was the latest in a flurry of diplomatic activity by the Trump administration ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

“Each of you carry a great responsibility,” Pompeo told the participants. “You have an opportunity to overcome your divisions.”

While Saturday’s opening was about ceremony, the hard negotiations will be held behind closed doors and over a number of sessions. But following a meeting with the Taliban on Saturday in Doha, Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said the U.S. and every Afghan would like to see a deal “sooner rather than later.”

The sides will be tackling tough issues in the negotiations, which will include the terms of a permanent cease-fire, the rights of women and minorities, and the disarming of tens of thousands of Taliban fighters and militias loyal to warlords, some of them aligned with the government.

Khalilzad said a quick, permanent cease-fire is unlikely, but held out hope for a gradual reduction in violence until both sides are ready to end their fighting. Mistrust runs deep on both sides, he said.

The Afghan negotiation teams are also expected to discuss constitutional changes and power sharing during their talks. Subsequent rounds of negotiations could be held outside Doha. Germany is among the countries offering to host future negotiations.

Even seemingly mundane issues like the flag and the name of the country — the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan or the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban’s administration was known when it ruled — could find their way onto the negotiation table and roil tempers.

Among the government-appointed negotiators are four women, who have vowed to preserve women’s rights in any power-sharing deal with the hard-line Taliban. This includes the right to work, education and participation in political life, all denied to women when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan for five years.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.

No women are on the Taliban’s negotiation team, led by their chief justice Abdul Hakim. The insurgent movement has said it accepted a woman’s right to work, go to school and participate in politics but would not accept a woman as president or chief justice.

Deeply conservative members of the government-appointed High Council for National Reconciliation, which is overseeing the talks, also hold that women can’t serve in either post.

At the opening ceremonies, there was some sign of Taliban changes in attitudes. Several Taliban jostled to to take photographs of leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as he addressed the ceremony. Photography was banned during the Taliban rule as being against Islam.

Baradar said the Taliban envisioned an Islamic system that embraces all Afghans, without elaborating. He also urged patience as the negotiations proceeded, urging both sides to stick with the talks even in the face of problems.

“The negotiation process may have problems, but the request is that the negotiations move forward with a lot of patience, with a lot of attention, and it should be continued with such kind of attention,” he said. “We want to give them (people of Afghanistan) this assurance that with full honesty we continue the Afghan peace negotiation, and we try for peace and tranquility, we will pave the ground in Afghanistan.”

Abdullah Abdullah, who heads Kabul’s High Council for National Reconciliation, said in his remarks that the sides do not need to agree on every detail, but should announce a humanitarian cease-fire.

Both sides will be “peace heroes” if negotiations bring about a lasting peace that protects Afghanistan’s independence and leads to a system based on Islamic principles that preserves the rights of all people, said Abdullaah..

Pompeo warned that their decisions and conduct will affect both the size and conduct of U.S. assistance.

He encouraged the negotiators to respect Afghanistan’s rich diversity, including women and ethnic and religious minorities. He said that while the choice of Afghanistan’s political system is theirs to make, the U.S. has found that democracy and rotation of political power works best.

“I can only urge these actions. You will write the next chapter of Afghan history,” he said.

Pompeo spoke the day after the 19th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the U.S. will never forget the 9/11, and that America welcomes the Taliban commitment not to host terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, which was responsible for the carnage.

The intra-Afghan negotiations were laid out in a peace deal Washington signed with the Taliban on Feb. 29. At that time the deal was touted as Afghanistan’s best chance at peace in 40 years of war.

Yet Abdullah noted that since that agreement was reached, 1,200 people have been killed and more than 15,000 wounded in attacks across the country. The United Nations has urged a reduction of violence and criticized civilian casualties on both sides.

The current talks had been originally expected to begin within weeks of the signed agreement between the Taliban and the U.S.

But delays disrupted the timeline. The Afghan government balked at releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners, which was stipulated in the deal as a sign of good faith ahead of the negotiations. The Taliban were required to release 1,000 government and military personnel in their custody.

Political turmoil in Kabul further delayed talks as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival in controversial presidential polls the year before, Abdullah Abdullah, squabbled over who won, with both declaring victory.

The Taliban refusal to reduce the violence further hindered the start of talks.

Still the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan does not hinge on the success of the talks.

Washington’s withdrawal is contingent on the Taliban honoring commitments to fight terrorist groups, in particular the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, and ensure that Afghanistan cannot again be used to attack America or its allies.

“The Taliban have work to do. We see progress, but they have work to do,” said Khalilzad. “We have a timetable which is that withdrawal should be completed if the conditions are met by the end of April.”

The U.S. has refused to give specifics of the guarantees citing security reasons, but the withdrawal of U.S. troops has already begun. President Donald Trump has said that by November, about 4,000 soldiers will be in Afghanistan, down from 13,000 when the deal was signed in February. All troops will be gone by April if Taliban fulfill their commitment to fight terrorists.

“Washington’s goals are very simple: It wants intra-Afghan talks happening as soon as possible, because these give the White House political cover for an imminent withdrawal,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Asia program.

“Trump likely wants a peace deal before the election, so that he can garner political benefits galore and pitch himself as a Nobel Peace Prize candidate. But presumably even he realizes it’s wildly unrealistic to expect a deal so soon. These types of negotiations tend to be measured in years, not weeks.”

The talks in Doha follow the Trump administration-brokered recognition of Israel by two Gulf Arab nations – Bahrain on Friday and the United Arab Emirates in August.

Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press Writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report

Iran’s Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said “some individuals” were arrested after “extensive investigations.” His statement on the judiciary’s website did not say how many people had been detained or name those arrested.

Iran at first dismissed allegations that a missile had brought down the plane, but in the face of mounting evidence officials acknowledged on Saturday — three days after — that its Revolutionary Guard had shot down the plane by mistake as the force braced for a possible military confrontation with the United States.

The plane, en route from Tehran to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several countries, including 82 Iranians and 57 Canadians, many of whom were Iranians with dual citizenship. There were several children among the passengers, including an infant.

Iran’s president on Tuesday called for a special court with “a ranking judge and dozens of experts” to be set up to probe the incident.

“The responsibility falls on more than just one person,” President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech, adding that those found culpable “should be punished.”

“There are others, too, and I want that this issue is expressed honestly,” he said, without elaborating.

Rouhani called the incident “a painful and unforgivable” mistake and promised that his administration would pursue the case “by all means.”

“This is not an ordinary case. The entire the world will be watching this court,” he said.

Tensions have been escalating since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, then reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under the accord.

The deal has quickly unraveled since then, with Iran steadily breaking away from limits on its nuclear program and Europe unable to find ways to keep Tehran committed.

The U.S. sanctions have devastated Iran’s economy.

On Tuesday, Britain, France and Germany triggered the so-called “dispute mechanism” action that paves way for possible further sanctions in response to Iran’s moves.

Tensions sharply escalated further after on Jan. 3, when a U.S. airstrike killed Iran’s most powerful commander, Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad.

In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq to avenge Soleimani’s killing. The Ukrainian plane was shot down in Tehran as Iranian forces were on alert for possible U.S. retaliation.

While Rouhani pointed to mistakes and negligence, he also repeated the government’s line that the plane tragedy was ultimately rooted in U.S. aggression.

“It was the U.S. that made for an agitated environment. It was the U.S. that created an unusual situation. It was the U.S. that threatened and took our beloved (Soleimani),” he said.

Rouhani called the government’s admission that Iranian forces shot down the plane a “first good step.”

He added that Iranian experts who retrieved the Ukrainian plane’s flight recorder, the so-called black box, have sent it to France for analysis.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, said over the weekend his unit accepts full responsibility for the shootdown. He said when he learned about the downing of the plane, “I wished I was dead.”

The incident raised questions about why Iran did not shut down its international airport or airspace the day it was on alert for U.S. military retaliation.

The shootdown and the lack of transparency around it has reignited anger in Iran at the country’s leadership. Online videos appeared to show security forces firing live ammunition and tear gas to disperse protests in the streets.

Also Tuesday, Iran’s judiciary said that 30 people had been detained in the protests, and that some were released, without elaborating further. An Iranian film director who’d called for protests in Tehran’s Azadi, or Freedom, Square is among those released.

Iranian authorities briefly arrested British Ambassador Rob Macaire on Saturday evening. He’s said he went to a candlelight vigil to pay his respects for the victims of the Ukrainian plane shootdown and left as soon as the chanting began and it turned into a protest.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the British ambassador on Sunday to protest what it said was his presence at an illegal protest. Britain, in turn, summoned Iran’s ambassador on Monday “to convey our strong objections” over the weekend arrest.

Iran’s top prosecutor, Mohammad Javad Montazeri, was quoted in local media Tuesday saying the British ambassador must be expelled from the country as soon as possible.

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Japan has a deep alliance with the United States, but it also has ties with Iran, which until 2017 supplied Japan with about 5 percent of its crude oil imports.

Japan has sought to remain politically neutral as tensions in the Persian Gulf have escalated following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Security in the Persian Gulf’s waters and for Mideast oil supplies is a national security priority for Japan, which imports nearly 90 percent of its oil from the Middle East. Much of that is shipped from Arab Gulf states through the narrow Straight of Hormuz, which Iran partly controls.

Japan plans to deploy naval forces, a destroyer and two patrol airplanes off the coasts of Yemen and Oman to help protect its energy supplies, while keeping away from directly patrolling the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S. does.

After arriving late Saturday evening in Riyadh, Abe was given a ceremonial welcome and hosted for lunch by King Salman Sunday afternoon. Abe also met Sunday with Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.

Saudi media reported he was scheduled to meet the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This marks Abe’s third visit to Saudi Arabia as prime minister.

Saudi Arabia is Japan’s top supplier of crude oil, accounting for about 39 percent of Japan’s overall crude imports.

Iran is unable to sell its oil internationally as it once did, due to U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration.

Over the summer, Japanese energy supplies became a target of rising tensions when two cargo ships were mysteriously hit off the Gulf of Oman. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, although others that summer were blamed on Iran, which has denied involvement.

The attacks on Japanese-related cargo in June took place while Abe was in Iran meeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

He’d traveled to Tehran as an interlocutor for President Donald Trump to ease tensions.

Concerns of a wider conflict have grown in recent days following a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed Iran’s powerful military commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran retaliated, striking two military bases in Iraq where American troops are stationed, though no casualties were reported. Amid the chaos and heightened threats, Iran acknowledged Saturday it had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people aboard.

Abe is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday and Oman on Wednesday, before departing back to Tokyo. In the UAE, he will meet with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and other leading Emirati figures. In Oman, Abe will hold talks with the country’s new ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, who was named on Saturday following the death of longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos.

Abe is travelling with a delegation that includes ministers responsible for boosting trade and business ties.

While in Saudi Arabia, he is scheduled to visit the desert region of Al-Ula, which the kingdom is touting as a tourism destination, and will reportedly met the Saudi crown prince there.

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem’s remarks to the United Nations General Assembly were made as Turkey and the United States press ahead with a deal to create a safe zone along Syria’s border with Turkey.

On the political front, he reaffirmed the government’s support for the recently agreed committee to draft a new constitution for the country. As has been the government’s tone since the start of the 2011 uprising in Syria, the foreign minister took a hard line, stressing there must be no interference from any country or timeline imposed on the process.

Al-Moallem’s speech highlighted the enormous challenges to achieve reconciliation in Syria, where over 400,000 people have been killed during the conflict and millions more have fled.

The more than eight-year conflict has also drawn numerous foreign militaries and thousands of foreign fighters to Syria, many to support the now-defeated Islamic State extremist group and others still there backing the opposition and battling government forces.

“The United States and Turkey maintain an illegal military presence in northern Syria,” al-Moallem said. “Any foreign forces operating in our territories without our authorization are occupying forces and should withdraw immediately.”

If they refuse, he said, “we have the right to take any and all countermeasures authorized under international law.”

There are around 1,000 U.S. troops in Syria on a mission to combat Islamic State militants. The United States also backs and supports Kurdish groups in the northeast that are opposed to the Syrian government and have fought against Sunni extremist groups.

U.S. President Donald Trump had said he wants to bring the troops home, but military officials have advocated a phased approach.

Al-Moallem described Turkey and the United States as “arrogant to the point of holding discussions and reaching agreements on the creation of a so-called ‘safe zone’ inside Syria” as if it was on their own soil. He said any agreement without the consent of the Syrian government is rejected.

The deal between the U.S. and Turkey keeps U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters, considered terrorists by Turkey, away from Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey. It involves an area five to 14 kilometers deep (three to eight miles), as well as the removal of heavy weapons from a 20-kilometer-deep zone (12 miles). The length of the zone has not yet been agreed to by both parties but will likely stretch hundreds of kilometers.

Most of Syria is now under the control of the Syrian government, which is backed by Russia and Iran. However, Syrian rebels and extremists still hold Idlib in the northwest, and U.S-backed Kurdish groups hold parts of the oil-rich northeast.

The Syrian government maintains that Idlib remains a hotbed for “terrorists” and al-Moallem vowed that its “war against terrorism” will continue “until rooting out the last remaining terrorist.”

In a breakthrough on the political front, earlier this week U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the formation of the committee that would draft Syria’s new constitution, which he said could be an important step toward ending the war.

The U.N. chief announced Saturday that the committee will meet for the first time in Geneva on Oct. 30. Its rules state that a new constitution will be followed by “free and fair elections under United Nations supervision.”

The committee was authorized at a Russian-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, but it took nearly 20 months for the sides to agree on the 150 members — particularly on a 50-member civil society of experts, independents, tribal leaders and women to serve alongside 50 members from the government and 50 members from the opposition. The U.N. was authorized to put together the civil society list but the choices faced objections, mainly from the Syrian government.

Under the newly announced terms, the “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned” committee, with U.N. envoy Geir Pedersen as facilitator, will amend the current 2012 constitution or draft a new one.

Al-Moallem stressed that the committee will operate without preconditions, its recommendations must be made independently, and “no deadlines or timetables must be imposed on the committee.”

On another long-simmering dispute, al-Moallem accused Israel of starting “another phase of escalation” through its repeated attacks on Syrian territory and the territory of other neighboring countries.

He stressed that “it is a delusion” to think that the Syrian conflict would force the government to forfeit its “inalienable right” to recover the Golan Heights which Israel captured during the June 1967 war. The annexation is not recognized under international law.

The Trump administration in March signed a proclamation recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing more than a half-century of U.S. policy in the Middle East. He also moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in recognition of Israel’s claims of the city as its capital.

“It is a delusion,” al-Moallem stressed, “to think that the decisions of the U.S. administration on the sovereignty over the Golan would alter historical and geographical facts or the provisions of international law.”

“The Golan has been and will forever be part of Syria,” he said.

President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States of engaging in “international piracy” against his country by re-imposing economic sanctions after Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Tehran “will never negotiate with an enemy that seeks to make Iran surrender with the weapon of poverty,” Rouhani said in his highly anticipated speech at the U.N. General Assembly. “Stop the sanctions so as to open the way for the start of negotiations.”

His words came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced additional U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s ability to sell its oil, this time imposing penalties on six Chinese companies and their chief executives for continuing to transport Iranian crude.

“We’re telling China and all nations, know that we will sanction every violation of sanctionable activity,” Pompeo said at an event for United Against a Nuclear Iran, a lobby group opposed to the nuclear deal, a few blocks from where Rouhani was speaking at the United Nations’ headquarters.

Tensions in the Middle East have risen as the nuclear deal unravels under U.S. pressure and Iran turns back to expanding its nuclear enrichment program, despite previous compliance with it for up to a year after Trump’s withdrawal from the accord.

The escalating crisis has raised concerns of a direct conflict — a scenario that all parties, including bitter rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, have stressed they want to avoid. The United States, meanwhile, has sent military reinforcements and heightened its security presence around the Persian Gulf.

In his U.N. speech on Tuesday, Trump described Iran as “one of the greatest threats” to the planet.

Rouhani said U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria had failed, with Washington “unable to resolve the more sophisticated issues” plaguing the Middle East.

“Security shall not be supplied with American weapons and intervention,” he said. “Security cannot be purchased or supplied by foreign governments.”

While Rouhani’s manner was measured, his words were ominous.

“Our region is on the edge of collapse, as a single blunder can fuel a big fire,” he said, adding that it will become secure only when U.S. troops withdraw.

The vast divide between the Washington and Tehran runs right through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf where a fifth of the world’s oil passes each day.

Months of lower-level attacks on oil tankers near the strait and Iran’s shooting down of a U.S. surveillance drone over the waterway have been blamed on Iran.

The most stunning attack unfolded earlier this month when drones and missiles struck key oil sites in Saudi Arabia, jolting global oil prices and temporarily knocking out nearly 6% of daily global crude oil production.

Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks, and says any strikes by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will lead to “all-out war.” Saudi Arabia has invited U.N. investigators to assess where the strikes were launched from, and says Iranian weapons were used.

Rouhani used his time at the podium to appeal to Iran’s neighbors, saying their destinies are intertwined. The free flow of oil “could be guaranteed,” he said, when there is security for all the region’s countries.

He also talked about Iran’s proposal for a Coalition for Hope, or the Hormuz Peace Initiative, that Tehran envisions would be formed under a U.N. umbrella and involve Middle Eastern countries.

“Neighbor comes first; then comes the house,” he said. “We are neighbors with each other and not with the United States.”

Iranian state television broadcast Rouhani’s speech live across the country of 80 million people, many of whom are struggling under the weight of crippling U.S. sanctions that have sent the Iranian economy into freefall and limited Tehran’s ability to sell its oil abroad.

Diplomatic efforts in Europe have scrambled to preserve the nuclear deal by searching— still unsuccessfully— for ways around the U.S. sanctions. Just before his speech, the remaining signatories to the accord — Russia, China, Britain France, Germany and Iran — stressed they are trying to preserve it.

Despite months of diplomatic frenzy, Rouhani said Iran has “only heard beautiful words.”

“Europe is unable and incapable of fulfilling its commitments,” he said, warning: “Our patience has a limit.”

The European position appears to have shifted after the Sept. 14 attack on Saudi oil sites. In a joint statement, Britain, France and Germany joined the U.S. this week in blaming Iran for the attack and in saying that the time had come for Iran to accept negotiations on its missile program and issues of regional security. These are two key main issues Trump says the nuclear deal did not address when it was completed under the Obama administration.

In his speech at the U.N., Trump left open the possibility of diplomatic engagement with Iran. As Rouhani ended his remarks, he also suggested there was still room for diplomacy.

“Let’s return to justice, to peace, to law, commitment and promise and finally to the negotiating table,” he said.

Associated Press writers Matt Lee in New York and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed.

The news conference by Saudi military spokesman Col. Turki al-Malki comes after a summer of heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. over President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrawing America from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The U.S. alleges Iran launched the attack, which Yemen’s Houthi rebels earlier claimed as a response to the yearslong Saudi-led war there that’s killed tens of thousands of people.

Al-Malki made a point not to directly accuse Iran of firing the weapons or launching them from inside of Iranian territory. The kingdom has sought help from international investigators and the United Nations, both lengthening the probe and internationalizing its conclusions.

“The attack was launched from the north and was unquestionably sponsored by Iran,” al-Malki told journalists.

By stopping short of saying the missiles were launched from Iran, the kingdom potentially avoids a response that could lead to war among the heavyweight countries of the region and international superpower, the United States. However, not retaliating to the strikes also carries the risk of leaving Saudi Arabia exposed to continued attacks.

The news conference took place with a backdrop of broken and burnt drones and pieces of one cruise missile allegedly collected from the attacks.

Al-Malki described the drones as “delta wing” models, which looked like large triangles. The cruise missile, which al-Malki described as a “Ya Ali” type, had a small jet engine attached to it.

Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles were launched in the assault, Al-Malki said, with three missiles failing to make their targets. He said the cruise missiles had a range of 700 kilometers (435 miles), meaning they could not have been fired from inside Yemen. He played surveillance video he said showed a drone coming in from the north. Satellite images released earlier by the U.S. showed damage largely on the north-facing sides of structures at the sites.

“This is the kind of weapon the Iranian regime and the Iranian IRGC are using against the civilian object and facilities infrastructure,” he said, using an acronym for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

He added: “This attack did not originate from Yemen, despite Iran’s best effort to make it appear so.”

Iran sent a note to the U.S. via Swiss diplomats in Tehran on Monday, reiterating that Tehran denies being involved in the Saudi attack, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency reported. The Swiss have looked after American interests in Tehran for decades.

“If any action takes place against Iran, the action will be faced by Iran’s answer immediately,” IRNA quoted the note as saying. It added that Iran’s response wouldn’t be limited to the source of the threat, suggesting it would inflict damage beyond what it had suffered.

IRNA separately reported Wednesday that Iran’s first delegation for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting had not left Iran because the U.S. has yet to issue them visas. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was to travel to New York on Friday, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani following Monday, according to the agency. The U.N. meeting had been considered as an opportunity for direct talks between Rouhani and Trump.

As the host of the U.N.’s headquarters, the U.S. is mandated to offer world leaders and diplomats visas to attend meetings there. But as tensions have risen, the U.S. has put increasing restrictions on Iranians like Zarif. Since becoming Iran’s president in 2013, Rouhani has spoken each year at the General Assembly.

The U.S. State Department said it declined to discuss “private diplomatic correspondence” when asked about the Iranian note to the Swiss.

Trump separately tweeted Wednesday: “I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!” He did not elaborate. National Security Council officials declined to comment.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Wednesday night in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, where he was scheduled to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Pompeo will later travel to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday to meet with Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Both nations are U.S. allies and have been fighting against the Houthis in Yemen.

Pompeo told reporters en route to Saudi Arabia that “it doesn’t matter” whether the Houthis claim they were behind the attack. “This was an Iranian attack,” he said.

“It doesn’t change the fingerprints of the ayatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply,” he said, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomenei.

Meanwhile, the state-run Saudi Press Agency carried a statement Wednesday saying the kingdom had joined a U.S.-led naval coalition to secure the Mideast’s waterways. Australia, Bahrain and the United Kingdom already have joined the mission.

Earlier in Tehran, Rouhani told his Cabinet that Saudi Arabia should see the weekend attack as a warning to end its war in Yemen, where it has fought the Houthi rebels since 2015 and sought to restore the internationally recognized government.

Rouhani said Yemenis “did not hit hospitals, they did not hit schools or the Sanaa bazaar,” referring to the Saudi-led coalition’s widely criticized airstrikes on civilian targets.

He added that Iran does not want conflict in the region, but it was the Saudi-led coalition that “waged the war in the region and ruined Yemen.” Saying the Houthis were responsible for the drone strikes, he said: “They attacked an industrial center to warn you. Learn the lesson from the warning.”

Gambrell and Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Darlene Superville in Washington and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.