Iran's Revolutionary Guard: In Retaliation, Lists U.S. and Israeli Universities as "Legitimate Targets"
Xinhua News Agency, Tehran, March 28 — Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on the 28th a statement warning that it will designate universities within Israel and American universities across West Asia as "legitimate targets for attack," citing this move as a response to recent airstrikes by the United States and Israel on Iran’s University of Science and Technology.
This statement represents an unusually bold stance from Iran, signaling a fundamental shift in the rules of engagement — crossing directly from military objectives into civilian educational infrastructure, raising both the intensity of confrontation and psychological deterrence to unprecedented levels.
The immediate trigger for this declaration was the previous air strikes by the U.S. and Israel on Iran’s University of Science and Technology. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard maintains that these recent actions were not limited to military or nuclear facilities but intentionally targeted universities and research institutions — the foundational pillars of Iran’s scientific development. Consequently, Iran’s retaliatory strategy is strictly based on “proportional retaliation”:
You strike my university, I strike yours.
Iran has explicitly identified the destruction of two universities as its retaliatory target, matching the number of Iranian universities destroyed.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that the true purpose behind the U.S.-Israel actions goes beyond merely “containing Iran’s nuclear program” — instead, it aims to systematically undermine Iran’s “scientific foundation and cultural heritage” by targeting universities, research institutions, and scientists.
Therefore, Iran has clearly defined its scope of retaliation to include “all universities in Israel” and “American universities in West Asia.” This means U.S. campuses located in countries such as the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are theoretically also under threat.
This declaration essentially constitutes a high-risk psychological warfare and political maneuver launched by Iran following battlefield setbacks. It forcibly extends the boundaries of military conflict into the education sector, aiming to pressure Washington into compelling Israel to halt its operations.
Gulf states may thus find themselves in a diplomatic dilemma, with security at U.S. university campuses within their territories inevitably undergoing rapid upgrades. If the United States fails to respond before the 30-day deadline, regional tensions could face a major risk of crossing the red line of attacking educational facilities.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1860962050701388/
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