The Iranian regime has threatened to target academic institutions tied to the United States and Israel across the Middle East after deeming such institutions as “legitimate targets.”
This came after strikes on the Isfahan University of Technology (IUT) and the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) in Tehran. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei slammed the attacks, claiming that other research centers in Iran have also been struck.
According to Rudaw media, a news outlet based in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accused “the invading American‑Zionist forces” of targeting Iranian universities in a statement titled “Warning to the Criminal Rulers of the US.”
Rudaw also noted that the IRGC statement advised “the unwise rulers of the White House" that "from now on, all universities of the occupier [Israeli] regime and American universities in the West Asia region will be legitimate targets for us.”
The statement advised, “all employees, professors, and students of American universities in the region, as well as residents in surrounding areas, to stay at least one kilometer away from these universities to protect their lives.”
US Embassy in Baghdad warns universities, US citizens
The US Embassy and consulate in Iraq have warned that Iran and its terror proxies "may intend to target the American Universities in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk, along with other universities perceived to be associated with the United States.”
In a warning released on X/Twitter regarding the threat, the US Embassy emphasized that "Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist militias have conducted widespread attacks on US citizens, targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), and Iraqi institutions and civilian targets."
The Embassy cautioned that "the Iraqi government has not prevented terrorist attacks against the United States and regional countries from Iraqi territory," and advised all US citizens to leave Iraq immediately.
Academic institutions taking IRGC threat seriously
Academic institutions in the Middle East have begun to take Iran’s threats into account.
The American University of Beirut (AUB) has moved classes online. Founded in the 19th century and officially named the AUB in 1920, it has trained key leaders and officials, playing an influential role in inspiring Arab nationalists and others for more than a century.
AUB has been a key part of Lebanon's academic landscape for generations. Many Palestinian intellectuals and activists went to the university, which has roots linked to the missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the Syrian Protestant College.
Daniel Bliss was the university's first president. Bliss was from Vermont and attended Amherst College and later Andover Theological Seminary before becoming AUB's president and teaching Bible and Ethics there.
The American University of Iraq-Baghdad, which was founded in 2018, says it began as “a dream of influential individuals in Iraq and US business, industry, and government who want to see a world-class institution of higher learning established in Baghdad, reminiscent of the days when the city was an educational and cultural mecca and the flourishing capital of the Muslim world.”
In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, there are two American Universities. The American University of Kurdistan (AUK) in Duhok, Iraq, was founded in 2014 by Masrour Barzani, who is now the prime minister. The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, was founded in 2006 and was inspired by American universities that had been founded in Beirut and Cairo. Dr. Barham Salih led the university before becoming the president of Iraq in 2018 and then the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
There are many other US-linked institutions in the region, such as the American University of Cairo, which was founded in 1919.
There are numerous US-linked institutions in the Gulf as well, such as the American University of Bahrain, the American University of Sharjah, New York University Abu Dhabi, Zayed University, Georgetown University in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, and others.
Meanwhile, in Israel, there are also many academic institutions that could be threatened. Iran will likely justify these types of threats by arguing that these institutions could be linked to Israel’s military-industrial complex. This is also the reason used for targeting the universities in Iran, which may lead Tehran to claim this is normal retaliation.
Israel has many universities, including the Technion, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, and Ben-Gurion University.