The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran has submitted a formal letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres and Security Council President Jamal Fares Alrowaiei, condemning a U.S.–Israeli attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran. It also denounced explicit threats by U.S. President Donlad Trump against Iran’s civilian infrastructure. The communication asserts that these actions constitute war crimes and declares that Iran will exercise its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

This is the full text of the letter: 

Upon instructions from my Government, and with reference to our communications regarding the ongoing war of aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran, I am writing to inform you and the members of the Security Council of a heartbreaking and outrageous attack carried out, 2 April 2026, by the U.S.-Israeli aggressors against the Pasteur Institute of Iran—the oldest and most prestigious research and public health center in the Middle East, founded in 1920 in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute of Paris. This act constitutes not merely a war crime in an unlawful war; it is a barbaric assault on fundamental human values.

At the same time, the President of the United States has, in parallel with the ongoing attacks by the United States and the Israeli regime against civilians, civilian objects and critical infrastructure in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including strikes on bridges, continued to issue explicit threats to destroy Iran’s infrastructure. On 1 April 2026, the President publicly threatened to “hit Iran extremely hard”, to “bring them back to the Stone Age”, and to strike “each and every one of their electric generating plants ... very hard and probably simultaneously”. These disgraceful statements followed his earlier remarks of 30 March 2026, in which he warned that, absent a prompt agreement with Iran, the United States would “blow up and completely obliterate” Iran’s critical civilian infrastructure, including electric generating plants, oil facilities, Kharg Island and desalination facilities. Similarly, on 21 March 2026, he threatened to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants, “starting with the biggest one first.”

The statements of the President of the United States constitute clear, direct and public evidence of intent to commit war crimes under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Such threats explicitly contemplate the large-scale targeting and destruction of civilian objects, including infrastructure indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.

The United States shall bear full international legal responsibility for any consequences arising from these unlawful threats, as well as from any acts carried out pursuant thereto. Such internationally wrongful acts, if carried out, would engage the responsibility of the United States, as well as the individual criminal liability of those involved in the planning, ordering or execution of such acts, who must be held accountable.

In response to these deliberate and unlawful threats and attacks, and in the continued absence of effective action by the Security Council in discharging its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no alternative but to exercise its inherent right of self-defence in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. The Islamic Republic of Iran will take all necessary and proportionate measures to safeguard and defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, ensure the security of its people, and protect its vital national interests.