‘Legitimate targets’ – Iran threatens to bomb US, Israeli universities

Iran warns of retaliation against educational institutions unless the U.S. condemns alleged attacks.

By World Israel News Staff

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to attack American universities’ satellite campuses throughout the Middle East, along with universities located in Israel, after claiming that universities in Iran had been damaged during recent airstrikes.

“The United States should be aware that all Israeli and American universities located in the West Asia region would become legitimate targets until two universities are struck in retaliation for the destroyed Iranian universities,” the IRGC said in a statement carried by the regime-affiliated Tasnim News Agency.

“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region to be free from retaliation… it must condemn the bombing of the universities in an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time,” the statement continued. It added that all university staff and students should maintain a distance of at least one kilometer from all college sites in order to “preserve their lives.”

The threats followed widespread airstrikes carried out overnight Friday by the United States and Israel, which struck numerous targets in Tehran.

According to the Iranian government, the Iran University of Science and Technology suffered damage to a number of its buildings. The extent of the damage and whether the institution was directly targeted remain unclear.

Education City in Doha, Qatar’s capital, hosts branches of several prominent American universities, including Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, and Carnegie Mellon. In the United Arab Emirates, New York University maintains a campus in Abu Dhabi.

Numerous American universities maintain partnerships with their Israeli counterparts, including the storied Israeli Technion with Brown University and Cornell University in the United States.

Almost 5,000 Americans were studying abroad in North Africa and the Middle East during the 2023–2024 academic year, according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors project, which is affiliated with the U.S. State Department.

Approximately half of those students were studying in Israel, while the remainder were dispersed across countries throughout the region.