TEHRAN - The Ministry of Science has announced that educational programs for foreign university students present in the country will continue despite the unfavorable conditions caused by the imposed war.

All universities have been asked to ensure that all international students benefit from the educational facilities and capacities of the universities by adopting innovative measures, including preparing offline educational packages, developing intensive summer training courses, and anticipating the possibility of completing practical courses in the coming years, in addition to continuing online education, IRNA reported.

These measures and plans should be implemented in a way that ensures that international students do not suffer academic, training, or even financial losses due to the conditions resulting from the imposed war.

Before the US-Israeli war against Iran, nearly 60,000 foreign students from 101 countries, mainly from Afghanistan, India, Iraq, and Pakistan, were studying in Iran.

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, Abbaspour University, and the Pasteur Institute of Tehran, have drawn global attention.

These attacks 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.

Science Minister Hossein Simaei-Sarraf has said over 30 Iranian universities had been directly attacked by the United States and Israel since the war began in late February.

Five university professors and more than 60 students had been killed in the strikes, added Simaei-Sarraf, describing attacks on Iranian infrastructure as “crimes against humanity.”

“The main reason the enemy targeted this sensitive infrastructure was that they did not want us to gain access to this technology,” he said, adding that many Iranians abroad have contacted the university, offering to help fund its restoration.

Amir-Saeid Iravani, ambassador to the United Nations, has accused the United States and Israel of committing “unprecedented barbarism” by deliberately targeting Iranian universities and scientific institutions, calling the strikes war crimes that no amount of threats or military pressure can extinguish.

In a series of letters to the UN secretary-general and the Security Council, Iravani detailed a systematic campaign of state terrorism. 

He cited an airstrike early on April 6 that severely damaged Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, including its faculties of civil engineering and electrical engineering, as well as research institutes for nanotechnology and environmental studies. That attack followed a similar strike on April 3 that hit Shahid Beheshti University, damaging its Laser and Plasma Research Institute.

“The intentional targeting of scientific institutions and universities constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime,” Iravani wrote.