The girls killed in the attack that opened the door to the armed aggression by the United States and Israel against Iran were between seven and twelve years old. The attack took place at a primary school in the city of Minab. The incident is under investigation, although, according to reports from media outlets such as RT and CNN, it has been obstructed at various stages.
After such a ruthless crime, the product of unscrupulous minds, any other action seems possible coming from the same perpetrators. Thus, the targeting of scientists, universities, and research centers to weaken the foundations of the Islamic Republic has become a new battlefront.
Despite the aggressors' claims that their attacks targeted military objectives, the facts clearly demonstrate that this is a reprehensible fallacy. The Iranian government has repeatedly revealed, following the attacks of February 28th, that the cultural and scientific losses are substantial.
Among the numerous educational institutions bombed, it is worth noting that the Iranian University of Science and Technology (IUST)—founded in 1929—was hit by coordinated targeted attacks. Also included on the list of destroyed facilities were Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and the Isfahan University of Technology.
The Faculty of Civil Engineering, the Philosophy of Science group, the nanotechnology and environmental research centers, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering also suffered damage.
Then, the Laser and Plasma Research Institute at Shahid Beheshti University was hit by U.S. and Israeli fighter jets. In a statement, the center asserted that "this hostile act not only threatens the safety of academics and the country’s scientific environment, but also constitutes a clear attack on reason, research, and freedom of thought."
A few days later, Sharif University of Technology, often compared to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States, was bombed, Al Jazeera reported.
In what the spokesman for the Ministry of Health considered a "direct attack on international health security," the Pasteur Institute of Tehran, founded more than a century ago and dedicated to the study of infectious diseases, the production of vaccines and biological products, and the provision of advanced diagnostic services, was reduced to rubble. Cuba has maintained historical ties with the institute, resulting, among other achievements, in the joint vaccines Soberana 02 and the pneumococcal vaccine.
In their stated interest in weakening Iran's nuclear program, Israel and the US have also assassinated civilians involved in that field. This hasn't only happened recently; as Hossein Simaei Saraf, Iran's Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, pointed out, Iranian scientists have been targeted for decades. He recalled that several professors from Shahid Beheshti University were killed by Israel during the 12-day war in 2015.
Why destroy universities and research centers? Why deliberately assassinate scientists? The answer is clear: destroying culture and heritage isn't enough. Attacking the civilian population and strangling the energy and military sectors to subdue Iran have not been successful. They see the greatest danger in science and its advancements, and in those who develop them. These individuals "control" what the attackers crave: oil and enriched uranium.
