ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - An extraordinary session of the UN Security Council held on Saturday saw the Iranian representative confront the US and Israel over their preemptive military campaign against Tehran, calling the violence against civilians a "war crime," while the latter two nations' diplomats defending their right to intervene.

The full-fledged conflict, which has seen countries including Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar experience missile attacks, began with joint US-Israeli strikes and has seen Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei be killed.

Speaking at the session, Iranian Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani said "the number of innocent civilians continues to rise," citing an the bombing of an elementary school in southern Iran's Hormozgan province that the Iranian Red Crescent said killed at least 108 people, many of whom were schoolchildren.

An elementary school in southern Iran's Hormozgan province was hit during US and Israeli bombardment on Saturday pic.twitter.com/C2MOUCvj6f

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"It is regrettable that some members of this body, in a blatant double standard, disregard the flagrant act of aggression committed by the US and Israel on Iran, and condemn Iran for using its inherent right to self-defense in the UN Charter," he continued.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said "this barbaric act is another black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors."

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz offered familiar American justifications for the strike campaign, saying that "the international community has long affirmed a simple and necessary principle: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon."

The US and Iran had held multiple rounds of nuclear negotiations before the military offensive, with Tehran having hailed the progress of dialogue as positive and expressed optimism at the prospect of making a deal.

The Israeli ambassador, Danny Danon, meanwhile, asserted that "we did not act out impulse" and there was "no choice left."

US President Donald Trump, when announcing the strikes on Saturday, said that weeks of bomardment may be required, urging members of the Iranian security apparatus to lay down their weapons in exchange for immunity.

Iran has retaliated with missile and drone bombardments primarily targeting US military bases in the Middle East, giving rise to myriad diplomatic protests by regional states on whose territory the US installations were bombed.