TEHRAN – Minister of Science, Research and Technology Hossein Simaei-Sarraf has announced that Iranian students and professors who have been sacked from American universities will be warmly welcomed.

“Some of our students who were legally majoring, and some professors who were teaching in American universities have been expelled, recently. They should not worry about anything; they will be accepted by Iranian universities of the same level, Mehr news agency quoted Simaei-Sarraf as saying. 

The official made the remarks on Wednesday while paying a visit to the aerospace research centre that was damaged during the US-Israeli war. 

It was a non-military center where researchers were operating in biology, agriculture, and mapping, the official noted.

The science minister went on to say that the universities across the country have made necessary arrangements and plans for the post-war period. 

Technological, research, scientific, and educational programs will be adapted to the current situation of the country. 

According to Simaei-Sarraf, 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.

On April 7, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations 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 this week, Ambassador Amir-Saeid 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.

The Iranian government’s spokesperson, Fatemeh Mohajerani speaking at a news conference at Shahid Beheshti University, echoed that defiance. 

“The enemies cannot extinguish the lamp of Iranian science,” the spokeswoman said, adding that recent attacks were meant to undermine the achievements of the 47-year-old revolution and sever the bond between the nation and its homeland. 

“These miscalculations are wrong. Iran is the common denominator of all Iranians. Those who have a homeland will stand behind their country, and Iranians living abroad will never give in.”

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 Middle East.

Universities and research institutions are engines of knowledge and technological production. Training engineers, scientists, and specialists across disciplines lays the foundation for industrial and economic development. Destroying such centers is not just a physical attack on buildings; it is an assault on the transmission of knowledge, the training of skilled professionals, and technology production.

This type of warfare against scientific institutions shows that Iran’s adversaries understand that the country’s future strength lies not only in its military but also in its knowledge and scientific development. 

Therefore, targeting universities and research institutes is a deliberate and strategic action to limit Iran’s scientific and engineering capabilities.