TEHRAN - China’s Minister of Education, Huai Jinpeng, has condemned the US-Israeli attacks on civilians and civilian facilities across Iran, particularly universities and educational centers.

China condemns any indiscriminate attack on civilians and civilian facilities. Attacking schools and universities and harming children is a clear violation of international humanitarian law and goes beyond the red line of human moral conscience, the Chinese minister said in a letter to Iranian Science Minister Hossein Simaei-Sarraf, ILNA reported.

“With deep regret over the attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Hormozgan Province, and other educational centers and universities, and the killing and wounding of a large number of people in Iran, I express my deepest condolences and sympathy on behalf of myself and the Ministry of Education of China, and extend my most sincere sympathies to the families of the deceased students. 

The Chinese Ministry of Education attaches great importance to scientific exchanges with Iran. In recent years, inter-university cooperation relations have been established between many universities on both sides, and educational and research cooperation has made positive progress. 

At the same time, it has paid attention to and is concerned about the situation of Iranian students studying in China, and based on humanitarian principles, has provided necessary support to Iranian students so that they can successfully complete their studies in China.” 

On March 7, Alireza Kazemi, the Minister of Education, wrote separate letters to Salim bin Mohammed Al-Malik, the director general of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), Khaled El-Enany; the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and Catherine Russell, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), urging them to condemn the U.S..-Israeli attacks to educational and cultural organizations in the country.

“As the Minister of Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I wish to express my deepest regret and strongest condemnation regarding the crimes committed by the United States of America and the Israeli Regime. 

These acts, characterized by illegal aggression and the deliberate bombing of residential zones, healthcare facilities, and vital educational infrastructures, particularly schools, constitute a grave assault on my nation,” Kazemi wrote to El-Enany.

“As you are aware, these targeted attacks represent a flagrant violation of the principles of international law, fundamental human rights, and the numerous international conventions and recommendations established to protect civilians, especially children and vulnerable populations. 

The international targeting of schools and students is an inhumane and calculated act designed to devastate the future generations of our country.” 

“Beyond the tragic loss of these oppressed martyrs and victims, approximately 20 educational centers have sustained severe damage, with some being completely destroyed. These attacks have severely disrupted the educational process for thousands of students, depriving them of their fundamental right to learn in a safe environment.”

“In light of UNESCO’s crucial mission to support education and promote peace, I urgently request that your organization firmly condemn these anti-human crimes. I further call upon you to demand that the aforementioned aggressors cease their attacks against educational infrastructure, schools, and students immediately,” the letter reads.

Since the beginning of the aggressive attacks by the US-Israeli coalition on Iran, a series of extensive assaults on Iranian scientific and academic centers including the Iran University of Science and Technology, Shahid Beheshti University, the Iranian Space Research Institute, Abbaspoor University, and the Pasteur Institute of Tehran, have drawn global attention.

These attacks, carried out mainly by American and Israeli forces, go beyond conventional military operations and carry broad strategic, cultural, and scientific implications. Analyzing these strikes highlights both the fear of foreign powers toward Iran’s scientific progress and the necessity of emphasizing the resilience of local science and knowledge in the face of violence and bombing.

Targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure on such a scale can, according to credible legal sources, constitute clear violations of international humanitarian law. Under the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law, civilian locations, including schools and universities, are generally protected from attacks.

The strike on the Pasteur Institute of Tehran, a research and public health center with over a century of history and a member of the international Pasteur network is a prime example of targeting scientific institutions as part of modern warfare. Established in the 1920s, the institute has been a regional pioneer in vaccine production and has played a key role in controlling deadly diseases, particularly plague originating from wildlife in the region.

In the context of modern warfare, destroying such institutions constitutes an attack on the human capital of the future. Education, research, and technology production form a continuous cycle of national development, and targeting universities, especially those engaged in research related to defense, energy, and strategic technologies is, in effect, an effort to dismantle national scientific infrastructure and knowledge production.