A senior UAE official said Friday that the incident aboard a flydubai flight to Israel this week was a "terrorist act", praising the captain who helped stop the plane from crashing after he was attacked by his co-pilot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that Israel would impose a "very heavy price" on any power behind the flydubai incident, without offering evidence that any country was responsible.

"As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer: The attacker underwent Islamist radicalization. He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Finland's government on Friday survived a parliamentary vote of confidence called over the government's Middle East policy following a criticized visit to Israel by the defense minister.

Opposition parties have accused the right-wing government of internal policy differences and inconsistency on the Middle East, leading the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to call for a motion of no confidence against the government.

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said Thursday that the flydubai co-pilot, suspected of an attack stopped by the captain and passengers on a flight bound for Israel, has been transferred from the kingdom to the United Arab Emirates.

The plane's captain and the co-pilot "after their health improved and the medical team cleared them, left the Kingdom heading to Abu Dhabi on Thursday morning... accompanied by the Emirati security team", the ministry said in a statement, adding that the initial investigation showed the co-pilot attacked the captain.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis struck an electricity distribution station in the holy city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition said Thursday, sparking strong condemnation from the Muslim world.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that Iran will be "hit very hard" if it is found to be linked to a pilot's attack on a flydubai flight to Israel.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said in a Time magazine interview published Thursday that it’s “possible” he’ll ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 midterms.

When pressed further by Time journalists, Trump continued: “I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?”

The United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday it was probing a possible "terrorist" link to an apparent attack by a pilot on board a flight to Israel that saw passengers reroute the plane to stop it from crashing.

The Trump administration is removing Syria from a list of countries that are not allowed to purchase or import U.S. weaponry, a step that is part of a monthslong process of easing sanctions on the new government in Damascus and its leaders.

In a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the State Department said it was amending its International Traffic in Arms Regulations, or ITAR, so that Syria no longer was among the nations subject to a policy of denial for licenses and other approvals needed for the sale of U.S. weapons and munitions.

Saudi Arabia turned down multiple requests by Israel to send its own planes to retrieve passengers from a diverted flydubai flight, a Saudi source with knowledge of the matter told AFP Thursday.

"They asked to send military warplanes. 2 or 3 direct to Tabuk airport,” the source told AFP. "Turned down."