![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP26082421268771.jpg\")
\n Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers use an excavator to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.\u2013Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 23, 2026.\u00a0Photo: Vahid Salemi\/AP <\/p>\n
\n Iranian Red Crescent emergency workers use an excavator to clear rubble from a residential building that was hit in an earlier U.S.\u2013Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 23, 2026.\u00a0Photo: Vahid Salemi\/AP <\/p>\n
Over the weekend, the U.S. and Israel bombarded<\/a> two universities in Iran, the Isfahan University of Technology and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran.<\/p>\n These are not, of course, the first attacks on civilian infrastructure in President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s illegal war on Iran; hospitals, desalination facilities, power plants, and an elementary school have all been hit<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iranian students and educators received no warning.<\/p>\n The U.S. and Israel claimed that the attacks on the universities were justified, because they said the schools were connected to Iran\u2019s weapons programs.<\/p>\n In response, Iranian authorities said<\/a> on Sunday that American university facilities in the region would be considered legitimate targets, should the U.S. not condemn the strikes on Iranian educational institutions.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned \u201call employees, professors and students of American universities in the region to stay at least a kilometer away.\u201d <\/p>\n Iranian students and educators received no such warning. Iran\u2019s university campuses have been closed since the U.S.\u2013Israeli war began last month; the weekend strikes nonetheless severely damaged buildings and reportedly<\/a> wounded at least four staff members.<\/p>\n Cynical Justification<\/p>\n Leaving aside the fact that nothing<\/a> in Trump\u2019s war of choice against Iran is justified, the U.S. and Israel\u2019s purported grounds for targeting Iranian universities are hollow and cynical. It is true that both universities had ties to military research. Would American and Israeli leaders consider their own equivalent institutions fair game? Of course not.<\/p>\n By stated U.S. and Israeli rationale, however, were Iran able to launch airstrikes on American soil, direct ties to the U.S. and Israeli military-industrial complex would make valid targets of at least the University of California, Berkeley<\/a>; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a>; and Johns Hopkins<\/a> University<\/a>, among dozens of other schools.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Numerous Israeli universities<\/a>, including Technion and Tel Aviv University, have research institutes dedicated to military technologies. And the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has a military base on campus for training intelligence soldiers.<\/p>\n Asymmetric warfare offers powerful aggressors the privilege of hypocrisy. It has long been pointed out that Israel\u2019s justifications for mass slaughtering civilians \u2014 that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure \u2014 would in turn justify strikes on civilian areas in Israel. The Israeli government, after all, has facilities and even military installations within and near major cities and towns, not to mention the integration of the military into vast swaths of civilian Israeli life.<\/p>\n This is true almost everywhere that commercial and military technologies become intractably integrated, but that integration is especially robust in Israel.<\/p>\n The idea that any site related to military research is a justified target could be used to attack any technological hub.<\/p>\n Indeed, in this grim conjuncture, the idea that any site related to military research and development is a justified target could be used to attack any industrial, educational, and technological hub \u2014 which is precisely what the U.S. and Israel are doing in Iran. The U.S. and Israel\u2019s own justifications for the Iranian university strikes de facto legitimize strikes against an MIT or a Technion, but American and Israeli leadership know that Iran and its allies don\u2019t have the firepower to flatten whole campuses.<\/p>\n This is not to say that Iran will not retaliate and attempt to extract a cost from its enemies; this has been the pattern since the U.S. and Israel launched their illegal offensive in late February.<\/p>\n Universities including New York University, Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, and others have lucrative campuses in the Persian Gulf monarchies, primarily in Abu Dhabi and Qatar. These schools have all already moved to online instruction and most international students and faculty have left countries facing retaliatory Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n These international campuses are not known for housing advanced research labs connected to military and surveillance research, but, as the student-led Gaza solidarity movement made clear, U.S. academia at large is deeply invested in multinational arms manufacturers and U.S. and Israeli military industries. Dozens of American institutions of higher education are deeply involved in the government-funded weapons research that helps make the U.S. military the most potentially destructive force in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cSystematic\u201d Targeting<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not pretend, however, that the ongoing war on Iran follows any sort of valid justificatory reasoning.<\/p>\n According to Helyeh Doutaghi, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Tehran who spoke<\/a> to Al-Jazeera, the university bombings reflect a \u201cconsistent and clear pattern, and that is the systemic de-industrialization and underdevelopment\u201d of Iran\u2019s capabilities.<\/p>\n We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us. <\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Thank You For Joining! <\/p>\n \n Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. <\/p>\n Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?\n <\/p>\n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe targeting is very systematic,\u201d she said, \u201cand very designed to make Iran incapable of defending its sovereignty by relying on its iedingeounous development and indigenous industries.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"HANDOUT](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP_20003456887739-crop-1578515342.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Become a member
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n Become a member
\n <\/a><\/p>\n