FM Araghchi condemns US-Israeli barbaric attack on ‘MIT of Iran’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned the latest criminal US-Israeli coordinated strike on Sharif University of Technology, one of Iran’s most prestigious and advanced centers of engineering, science, and innovation, widely regarded as the country’s equivalent of MIT.

In a statement posted on X on Monday, Araghchi said, “Israeli-US aggressors have bombed the MIT of Iran. This follows attacks on other universities.”

He further invoked the timeless wisdom of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): “1,400 years ago, Prophet Muhammad said that even if knowledge was situated in the distant Pleiades, Iranians would be capable of attaining it.”

The foreign minister warned, “Aggressors will see our might.”

Iran’s First Vice President, Mohammad Reza Aref, a Stanford-educated engineer, also delivered a sharp rebuke.

Aref wrote on X: “The bunker-buster bomb attack on Sharif University is a symbol of Trump’s madness and ignorance.”

“He (Trump) fails to understand that Iran’s knowledge is not embedded in concrete to be destroyed by bombs. The true fortress is the will of our professors and elites.”

The savage strike caused extensive damage to the university’s laboratories, the central mosque, and other key facilities.

This attack is part of a systematic campaign in which at least 30 Iranian universities have been targeted since the beginning of the ongoing US-Israeli war of aggression.

Civilian infrastructure, including roads, power plants, bridges, and energy facilities have also been hit in recent days.

The current round of aerial aggression began on February 28, eight months after the initial unprovoked US-Israeli attacks on the Islamic Republic. This offensive led to the martyrdom of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, along with hundreds of innocent Iranian civilians -- including women and children -- and several senior military commanders.

In response, Iran launched swift and powerful retaliation, firing barrages of missiles and drones at Israeli-occupied territories and US bases and interests across the region.

Experts said the attacks on universities represent not only an assault on Iran’s scientific future but a desperate attempt by the aggressors to crush the Iranian people’s spirit and pursuit of knowledge.

But such criminal acts will only strengthen national unity and determination to defend the homeland. Iran’s knowledge and civilization -- rooted in thousands of years of history -- cannot be bombed into submission, they added.

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