Iran’s most senior diplomat at the United Nations has issued a fresh call for the total exit of U.S. and Israeli forces from Syria as conflict continued to rage on several fronts across the Middle East, setting the stage for a potential broader regional war.

The statement was issued Tuesday at the Security Council by Iranian Permanent Representative Amir Saeid Iravani and shared with Newsweek by the Iranian Mission to the U.N.

“The Syrian people continue to suffer from humanitarian crises, aggression, foreign occupation, and terrorism,” Iravani said. “Through unlawful occupation, inhumane sanctions, politicizing the return of refugees and IDPs, and preventing international support for Syria’s reconstruction, certain Western countries are responsible for the prolongation of the conflict as they attempt to impose their own will on the Syrian people.”

Iravani singled out the United States, which cut ties with the Iran and Russia-backed Syrian government and instead largely supports a Kurdish-led militia known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls much of the country’s northeast.

“Any separatist agendas and illegitimate self-rule initiatives must be rejected and all foreign forces whose presence is illegal in the territory of Syria by the Syrian Government must withdraw from Syria,” Iravani said. “In this context, the full, immediate, and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria is essential for the peace and stability of Syria.”

He also called out Israel over its “continued aggressions against Syria’s sovereignty, targeting civilians and vital infrastructure” as well as its “unlawful” occupation of the southwestern Golan Heights, seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed without international recognition.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have engaged in a yearslong campaign of airstrikes in Syria, targeting suspected positions linked to Iran and factions of its “Axis of Resistance” coalition, including the powerful Lebanese movement.

As regional tensions soared over the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement in Gaza, one such strike conducted in April against Tehran’s consulate in Damascus killed several Iranian military personnel, among them at least two senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran responded with an unprecedented direct missile and drone barrage from Iran against Israel, which later reportedly conducted an attack on a military site within the Islamic Republic.

Earlier this month, yet another IRGC adviser in Syria was killed in a strike attributed to Israel, drawing new calls for revenge.

The U.S. has also conducted several rounds of strikes in Syria and neighboring Iraq amid a monthslong campaign of rocket and drone attacks claimed by a coalition of “Axis of Resistance” militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq against U.S. troops. The campaign was halted in February after the deaths of three U.S. soldiers at the border between Jordan and Syria drew an intensive set of U.S. strikes across Iraq and Syria.

But Islamic Resistance of Iraq factions have repeatedly warned they were prepared to resume the offensive if President Joe Biden did not order the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Over the weekend, one of the most prominent groups, Kataib Hezbollah, accused the U.S. of conducting a strike on the Iraq-Syria border that killed a fighter of fellow Islamic Resistance in Iraq member Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

Meanwhile, the IDF and Hezbollah have engaged in intensifying clashes along the Israel-Lebanon border, raising concerns over a possible full-scale escalation and a sparking a recent exchange of warnings shared with Newsweek by Iranian and Israeli officials.

These concerns were echoed Tuesday at the U.N. Security Council by Syrian Permanent Representative Qusay al-Dahhak. He accused the U.S. and its allies of pursuing destabilizing policies in the Middle East, particularly through their efforts to undermine the Syrian government and their support of Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, however, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

“For years, we have known that a lack of progress toward a solution in Syria would exacerbate conflict risks in the wider region,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Now, that risk has become a reality.”

But she largely put the blame on Tehran and Damascus for aiding the movement of allied militias throughout the country.

“Iran and its proxies and partners increasingly use Syrian territory to threaten Israel and traffic dangerous weapons,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Regardless of the talking points the Assad regime deploys in this chamber, Syrians themselves know that Iran’s militant proxies and partners seek only to advance their own destabilizing agenda—and not to help the Syrian people.”

“In this dangerous moment,” she added, “it is important that we work—all work—to reduce tensions and prevent escalation in Syria and neighboring countries.”

Iran’s flag is flown at half-staff at the Iranian Embassy in Damascus on May 20, following the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, his top diplomat and others in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan

Iravani, in his own statement, affirmed Iran’s commitment to a political resolution in Syria but said such measures must be pursued through a Syrian-led, U.N.-facilitated process and “without any external interference or pressure or setting any artificial deadline to conclude its work.”

Iran has cooperated with fellow Assad backer Russia as well as Turkey, which supports insurgent forces in the northwest, through a trilateral peace process known as the Astana format. Though Ankara is a NATO ally of Washington, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has deeply criticized U.S. support for the SDF, considering the group to be an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

After initially backing rebels fighting to oust Assad, the U.S. shifted support to the SDF in 2015 after the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) seized large parts of Syria and Iraq. Washington, Tehran and Moscow continue to back efforts to defeat the jihadis, but the group has taken advantage of rival movements to continue to conduct attacks and devote efforts toward resurgence abroad, including claiming high-profile attacks on Russia and renewed threats against the West.

Russia, for its part, has also reiterated calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and criticisms of Israel as global geopolitical tensions are exacerbated by both the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the still-raging war between Russia and Ukraine.

“The situation in the region remains extremely turbulent amid ongoing military activities in the zone of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the high risk that neighboring countries will get involved,” Russian Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya said.

“Meanwhile, the causes for concern about the humanitarian situation in Syria are only growing,” he added. “They are primarily related to the destructive actions of Israel, which continues to carry out random strikes on Syrian infrastructure facilities, as well as to sporadic clashes between armed groups and U.S. forces.”

With divisions still rife within Syria and extending across the region, U.N. deputy special envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi stated during the same meeting that “many Syrians are living in a climate of fear because of the security situation which continues to be tense and violent.”