Prime Minister Nawaf Salam insisted at the U.N. on the need to "avert the vacuum" that would be caused by withdrawing the peacekeeping mission deployed in the country's south without a viable replacement.

Under U.S. pressure, the U.N. Security Council decided last month to fix December as the end of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been deployed since 1978.

The Iraqi government said Saturday it was holding talks with the United States to secure an exemption from then ban on Iranian airlines, which has disrupted travel for patients, students and pilgrims.

All Iraqi airports enforced the ban this week, resulting in major disruption at the airport of the holy city of Najaf, the main destination for Iranian flights to Iraq.

The United States had yet to publicly respond on Saturday after Iran offered a plan to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, though reports indicated that President Donald Trump had rejected the proposal.

China and the United States agreed to set up a "communication channel" for artificial intelligence incidents, both sides said, after a Washington summit short on breakthroughs.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan will hold chief of staff talks to support the kingdom, Riyadh said in a statement on Friday, as Yemen's Houthis ramp up attacks on the world's top crude exporter.

The Iran-backed group has escalated its attacks on the kingdom since July, ending a years-long truce and declaring a maritime blockade, hitting Saudi targets and seizing Yemen's entire Red Sea coast as they seek to stifle Saudi oil exports.

In southern Lebanon, eight-year-old Yara Ajami started the academic year this week in a doorless, windowless classroom after her school was destroyed by an Israeli strike.

Well known in the area for its excellence, Ajami's elementary school in Burj Qalaway was struck by Israel in May.

Russia on Friday said a Ukrainian strike killed three people -- which it said were aid volunteers from Siberia -- in the Moscow-occupied part of the southern Ukrainian Zaporizhzhia region.

Kremlin-installed official Yevgeny Balitsky said "three volunteers from (Russia's) Omsk region were killed as a result of a cynical terrorist attack on a civilian vehicle delivering humanitarian aid" near the village of Novobogdanivka.

The four main European football leagues -- the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A and Germany's Bundesliga -- called on Friday for a reform of FIFA.

The sport's governing body has been mired in crisis since the revelation of a shelved plan to create a commercial company open to private investors.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said U.S. President Donald Trump told him he would allow Ukraine to produce advanced Patriot air defense missiles, after a series of reversals on the issue.

"At our last meeting, President Trump emphasized to me that yes, I have made a final decision. Ukraine will receive licenses for the production of Patriot missiles," Zelensky said in a voice note to journalists.

Iran has submitted a proposal to the United States to end their war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days, its foreign minister told media outlets in New York.

"If certain conditions are met, the strait will be open within seven days and talks will start," Abbas Araghchi, who is in the U.S. for the U.N. General Assembly, told media outlets including the New York Times and The Guardian.