Iran Denounces 'Calculated' US Strike on Minab School at UN Session

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told an emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council on March 27, 2026, that the bombing of a school in Minab on February 28 was a deliberate act by the United States, not a targeting error. Araghchi delivered his accusation via video message during the emergency meeting, calling the strike a "calculated" attack by the American military. Tehran has reported that the bombing killed more than 175 (people) — deaths reported by Tehran from Minab school bombing people. The attack took place on the first day of the Israeli-American military offensive against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury. The UN human rights chief separately called for justice in response to the incident.

Araghchi rejects U.S. justifications as inadmissible Araghchi directly challenged statements made by Washington in the weeks following the strike. He argued that contradictory American explanations could not exempt the United States from legal and moral responsibility for the deaths. „The attack against this school was neither a simple incident, nor a miscalculation. The contradictory statements by the United States aimed at justifying their crime can in no case exempt them from their responsibility” — Abbas Araghchi via Le Parisien The Iranian foreign minister framed the bombing as a deliberate act of war rather than collateral damage, a characterization Washington has disputed. According to a Reuters report from March 12, investigators at the U.S. Defense Department believed American forces were likely responsible for the bombing, and new indications pointed in that direction. That same day, video analysis published by news outlets showed a U.S. missile had struck a military base near the school. President Donald Trump had previously suggested Iran itself carried out the bombing, a claim that conflicted with the Pentagon's own internal assessment.

UN panel had already flagged children's deaths weeks earlier The emergency Human Rights Council session on March 27 was not the first international body to raise alarm over the Minab bombing. A UN panel of experts said on March 4 it was "deeply disturbed" by the deaths of children following the bombing of what sources identified as the Shajareh school. The panel's statement came nearly two weeks before the Pentagon's own investigators reached their preliminary conclusions about U.S. responsibility. The sequence of international reactions underscored the degree to which the Minab incident became a focal point of scrutiny during the early weeks of the conflict. Iran's decision to bring the case before the Human Rights Council in Geneva represented a formal escalation of its diplomatic campaign over the strike. Araghchi, who has served as Iran's foreign minister since August 2024, has been one of Tehran's most prominent voices during the war, while simultaneously stating that Iran does not currently intend to negotiate with the United States to end the conflict.

War context deepens dispute over strike accountability The Israeli-American military offensive against Iran, which U.S. and Israeli officials designated Operation Epic Fury, began on February 28, 2026. The opening strikes of the campaign killed Ali Khamenei, Iran's longtime Supreme Leader. Mojtaba Khamenei, his son, was subsequently appointed Supreme Leader on March 9, 2026, according to current facts. The Minab school bombing occurred on that same first day of strikes, immediately generating international controversy over the conduct of the offensive. The broader conflict has placed Iran in an unusual diplomatic posture: simultaneously waging a military defense and prosecuting an international legal and political campaign against the United States and Israel. Araghchi's appearance before the Human Rights Council reflected Tehran's strategy of using multilateral forums to build pressure on Washington. The Iranian government's claim of more than 175 dead in the Minab strike, if confirmed independently, would rank the incident among the deadliest single attacks on a civilian site in the early phase of the war. Web search results indicate Israel removed Araghchi from its military target list after intervention by Pakistan, a development that illustrated the complex diplomatic currents running alongside the armed conflict. The Operation Epic Fury campaign has drawn sustained international criticism, with the Minab school bombing serving as the most contested single incident in that debate so far.