Iranian universities and scientific research centers have come under a series of attacks in recent days, raising concerns that academic institutions are becoming a new front in a growing war.
Iran’s Ministry of Science has announced that at least 21 universities have been damaged in strikes since the war began, and that academics themselves have been targeted, which Tehran claims is an attempt to undermine Iran’s scientific and cultural foundations.
CNN has geo-located multiple videos showing damaged buildings at Iran University of Science and Technology. The university is an engineering-focused institution located in the capital that has been training professionals in fields related to Iran’s industrial and defense sectors for many years.
A video taken before sunrise on Saturday shows the university’s research center reduced to rubble, with twisted metal, bricks and debris scattered across the grounds. It appears that a nearby building is on fire. Other photos posted later showed smoke billowing from the wreckage and windows of an adjacent building shattered.
The university, which was established in 1929 as Iran’s first specialized institute for training engineers, said it suffered damage but no casualties in the attacks by the United States and Israel. It condemned the attacks, saying attacks on academic institutions are a violation of international law.
The attack has sparked warnings of Iranian retaliation and has already disrupted higher education in Lebanon, Qatar and other Gulf states.
Janina Dill, professor of global security at the University of Oxford and co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, said: “Universities are typically civilian infrastructure and unless they are being used for military purposes, direct attacks on them could be a war crime.”
“Storing weapons in a university building or planning an attack from it could make it a legitimate military target, but teaching or research alone is generally not considered sufficient to convert a building to a military purpose,” she said.
The Israeli military said on Monday it targeted some university facilities in Tehran, including the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Imam Hossein University, in what it described as military infrastructure, claiming the facilities were used for weapons development.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli attack killed several Iranian nuclear scientists and called it part of a broader effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program.
Manucher Moradi, deputy director of research at Tehran University, said the attack went beyond military purposes.
“Universities are places of thought and dialogue, and any violence or intimidation in this area is considered an attack on the foundations of national progress and human dignity,” he told Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
He stated that the international academic community has a duty to protect “academic independence” and called for action.
The university strike raises uncomfortable questions for Iranians living nearby.
“The university is basically empty, so people are asking, ‘What’s down there? Are they building ballistic missiles? What are they doing?’ People are scared,” said one Tehran resident, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Analysts say the targeting of universities and Iran’s threats of retaliation against academic institutions abroad point to an escalation of the conflict and possible divergence of objectives between the parties involved.
“This strike shows that Israel’s goals are not necessarily aligned with those of the United States,” said Dina Esfandiary, head of the Middle East at Bloomberg Economics. “Israel aims to disrupt, transform and cause chaos in the government. A weak Iran is not much of a threat to Israel.”
Esfan Diary said Iran’s response so far has followed a coordinated pattern.
“Iran has adopted a ruthless but gradual escalation strategy. For every attack the United States and Israel have carried out on its soil, Iran has threatened similar attacks in the Gulf Arab states, giving the United States and Israel time to back down before carrying out their threats,” she said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced that it will target American and Israeli affiliated universities in the Middle East in response to attacks on Iranian academic institutions.
That threat is being taken seriously.
The American University of Beirut announced Sunday that it would operate fully remotely for two days “out of an abundance of caution,” and the Lebanese American University also announced a shift to online learning “as a precautionary measure in light of the widespread threat to educational institutions in the region.”
When the war began more than a month ago, many universities moved online.
Qatar’s Ministry of Education ordered all schools and universities to switch to distance learning on February 28, the first day of the conflict. U.S.-affiliated campuses around the country, including campuses affiliated with Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts, remain online-only.
“In light of the recent situation and as a precautionary measure, we are temporarily closing access to NU-Q buildings until further notice,” Marwan Kreidi, dean of Northwestern University in Qatar, said in an email sent to students Sunday and seen by CNN.
U.S. agencies in the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have taken similar steps.
“There is little doubt that they could attack American universities in the Gulf region if they wanted to,” Esfandiary said. “But this will erase any remaining sympathy for them internationally.”
A new school year will begin in Iran in early April, but all classes will be held virtually until further notice.
Shrooq Alyafei and Farida Elsebai contributed to this report.
