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Over 1,000 scientists urge protection for Iranian universities from US-Israeli strikes
“We, the undersigned academics, researchers, students, and members of the global scholarly community, express our grave concern over at least 21 attacks that have damaged laboratories, universities, hospitals, and other scientific institutions during the ongoing unprovoked US-Israel's aggression on Iran,” the letter begins, Press TV reported.
The US-Israeli aggression targeted Isfahan University of Technology, Iran University of Science and Technology and Amirkabir University of Technology, the letter said.
It added that in another strike on March 31, “one of Iran’s largest pharmaceutical R&D centers, Tofiq Daru, a major producer of anesthetics and treatments for MS and cancer, was targeted and severely damaged.”
Scientific and educational institutions are civilian spaces essential to public health, knowledge, and human survival, and their destruction endangers researchers, students, medical personnel, and the broader public, while causing lasting harm to science and society, the letter noted.
The letter called on the UN, UNESCO, and relevant international bodies to document the damage caused to these institutions, protect affected scholars and students, and support independent investigations into violations of international humanitarian law.
“We urge the international community to act now to protect scientific infrastructure, defend academic life, and uphold the principle that knowledge-serving institutions must never be treated as expendable in war,” the letter concludes.
Among the signatories are two Nobel Prize laureates from Norway, a prominent British physicist, and a colleague of Dr. Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, an Iranian nuclear scientist who was assassinated by the Israeli regime back in early 2010.
The criminal US-Israeli aggression against Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
The aggression also caused damage to or destroyed civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools among other things.
Iranian armed forces responded by launching daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in the Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military bases and assets across the region.
Furthermore, Iran retaliated against the strikes by closing the Strait of Hormuz, which resulted in a significant increase in oil prices and its by-products.