Gulf states at the United Nations Wednesday, addressing the Human Rights Council, said that Iranian strikes on their infrastructure pose a serious, existential threat. Volker Turk, the high commissioner for human rights, said these strikes may amount to war crimes.

The war, which began nearly a month ago, sparked massive retaliation from Iran as the authoritarian regime launched drones and missile attacks targeting civilian commercial infrastructure sites and energy production facilities across the countries of the Persian Gulf that killed civilians and pushed up oil prices.

The six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), along with Jordan, called for the special HRC session focusing exclusively on the ongoing situation with Iran.

“We are seeing an existential threat to international and regional security,” Naser Abdullah H. M. Alhayen, Kuwait’s ambassador, said. “This aggressive approach is undermining international law and sovereignty.”

The UAE’s ambassador, Jamal Jama al Musharakh, accused Iran of using these tactics to sow fear among the Gulf states, criticizing Iran’s “attempt to destabilize the international order through reckless adventures of expansionism.”

The HRC is reviewing a draft resolution that “condemns in the strongest terms the egregious attacks” by Iran and its closure of the Strait of Hormuz and expresses “grave concerns at the Iranian attacks on energy infrastructure.”

Iran responded by claiming self-defense, alleging that 1,500 civilians have been killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes.

In a reference to Israel, Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said, “We fight on behalf of all of you against an enemy that, if not restrained today, will be beyond containment tomorrow.”

Israel has maintained that its war aims seek to militarily degrade a regime that is attempting Israel’s destruction by destroying its missile and nuclear capabilities and creating the conditions that could lead to regime change.

Meanwhile, Iran has obtained support from China to secure an emergency meeting at the U.N. on Friday regarding the strike that killed 165 school girls on the first day of the war. The U.S. has said the strike was likely a U.S. strike resulting from faulty intelligence and was a mistake.

Turk called for a cessation of hostilities on all sides, saying the conflict is dangerous and unpredictable.

“Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure must end. If they are deliberate, such attacks may constitute war crimes,” he said.

The council expressed strong support for the Arab states, with some dissenters. The International Service for Human Rights, an independent group, suggested that “selective outrage” was at play and said attention must be paid to war crime violations committed by all sides.

Oman, which had acted as a mediator between Iran and the U.S. during the failed negotiations that preceded the war, accused the U.S. and Israel of igniting the conflict, explaining that Iran’s retaliation came in response to the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.

“[They were] the spark that ignited the escalation currently affecting the region and the consequences are threatening states and their vital economic interests and their security and stability,” said Oman’s U.N. ambassador, Idris Abdul Rahman Al Khanjari.