‘Slaughtered in cold blood’: Iran FM Araghchi accuses US of ‘war crimes’ over Minab school bombing, calls it ‘calculated assault’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday (Mar 27) slammed the bombing of Minab school, calling it a “calculated assault” by the United States. In a video address to the United Nations Human Rights Council during an urgent council debate on the February 28 attack, Araghchi called it “a war crime and a crime against humanity”. This comes as the war in West Asia entered its Day 28 on March 27. Hostilities began on February 28 when the US and Israeli military launched strikes on Iran, killing Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and several other top Iranian officials. In retaliation, Iran launched attacks on Israel and US military bases across the Gulf and has blocked the strategic Strait of Hormuz, triggering a global energy crisis.

Araghchi said that the strike on the elementary school “in the city of Minab, south of Iran, where more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood”.

US President Donald Trump had claimed that Iran itself was responsible for the attack, which happened on the first day of the war. However, a US military investigation reported by The New York Times suggested that a US Tomahawk cruise missile, which Iran does not possess, had struck the school due to an error in targeting. The report added that the US military was striking an adjacent Iranian base. The school building had earlier been a part of the base, and target coordinates were set using outdated data.

Araghchi stressed that “at a time when the American-Israeli aggressors, in their own assertions, possess the most advanced technologies, and the highest-precision military and data systems, no one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional.”

He added that the school bombing “was a war crime and a crime against humanity, one that demands unequivocal condemnation by all and unambiguous accountability for the culprits.”

“This atrocity cannot be justified, cannot be concealed, and must not be met with silence and indifference,” the minister said, adding that the attack “was not a mere ‘incident’ nor a ‘miscalculation’.”

“The United States’ contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility,” he said.

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