Iran, which for the first month of its conflict with the U.S. and Israel focused its retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases, as well as airports and oil facilities used by U.S. allies in the Middle East, is now threatening to target American universities operating in the region.
“Universities belonging to the U.S. and Israeli regime in the West Asia region are the legitimate targets of the Iranian military forces,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned last week, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Faculty, students, and neighbors, the IRGC said, should stay “away from the aforementioned universities to protect their lives.”
The threat followed alleged attacks on Isfahan University of Technology and the Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran. The Iranian Ministry of Science said Saturday that more than 30 of the country’s universities have been struck.
U.S. and Israeli officials have not publicly confirmed or explained strikes on those specific institutions. However, Israel has said in other cases it targeted university facilities it alleged were tied to Iran’s missile and weapons development programs. Israeli officials have said such sites are treated as part of the country’s military infrastructure when linked to defense research.
Both institutions are major engineering and research centers within Iran’s scientific network, and Western officials have long accused Tehran of using academic institutions to support its nuclear and military programs, claims Iran denies.
American schools in the region shifted to remote or hybrid learning after the conflict began Feb. 28. But after Iran’s threats, many schools in the region are taking stricter security measures, according to the Post.
The American University of Beirut restricted access to all but essential personnel. Education City in Doha, Qatar, where Georgetown, Cornell, Northwestern, and other universities maintain campuses, closed their premises until further notice. New York University’s Abu Dhabi operation in the United Arab Emirates has done the same.
Lebanon is caught up in a revived conflict between Israel and Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an airstrike on the first day of the conflict. Hezbollah began firing missiles into Israel, and Israel responded by pushing its troops deeper into Lebanon, warning residents to evacuate, and attacking the terrorists.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq warned Sunday that Iran “and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target American universities in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and Dohuk, along with other universities perceived to be associated with the United States.”
“Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist militias have conducted widespread attacks on U.S. citizens, targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and Iraqi institutions and civilian targets,” the warning, posted on X, stated. “The Iraqi government has not prevented terrorist attacks against the United States and regional countries from Iraqi territory. U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now.”
Some American schools in the region were already winding down operations amid Israel’s war with Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza. In 2024, Texas A&M announced it would close its satellite campus in Qatar by 2028 out of concern for “heightened regional instability,” according to the Post. The Qatari government called the move “misguided” and “influenced by a disinformation campaign.”
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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