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‘War crime’ of US-Israeli attack on Pasteur Institute demands retribution: FM spox
Tehran has condemned the deliberate targeting of the Pasteur Institute of Iran during the recent US-Israeli aggression, calling for those responsible for the attack on the country’s iconic medical research center to be held accountable.
In a post on X on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei pointed to a recent report published in The Lancet medical journal warning that the destruction inflicted on the Pasteur Institute threatens not only Iran’s healthcare system but also regional health security, Press TV reported.
Baqaei described the attack on the century-old scientific and public health institution as “a flagrant war crime,” saying it constituted an assault on people’s right to health, science and life.
“The American-Israeli deliberate attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran was a flagrant war crime. The perpetrators must be held accountable,” he wrote.
Quoting The Lancet report, Baqaei noted that the institute had served as “a pillar of the country’s public health system for more than a century,” warning that its destruction poses “a real, immediate, and dangerous threat to public health.”
A group of international researchers and health experts, whose paper appeared in The Lancet this week, also urged the global health community to support the restoration of the institute following the extensive damage caused by the strikes.
The researchers warned that several critical laboratories, including facilities dedicated to genomic surveillance, rabies, HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis and vector-borne diseases, had been completely destroyed, potentially undermining timely responses to future outbreaks.
The Pasteur Institute of Iran was bombed on April 1 and 2, with its headquarters and 13 source laboratories reportedly levelled during the US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic.
The aggression began on February 28 and ended under a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire on April 8.
Founded in 1920 through cooperation between the Pasteur Institute of Paris and the Iranian government, the institute has played a pivotal role in combating infectious diseases and advancing vaccine production in Iran and across the region for more than a century.
The Lancet paper stressed that the consequences of the attacks extend beyond Iran, warning that regional public health security is now at risk due to the damage inflicted on one of West Asia’s most important medical and research institutions.