Iran says strikes hit historic Pasteur Institute in Tehran: What to know
Iranian officials say US-Israeli strikes have hit Tehran’s Pasteur Institute, a century-old pillar of Iran’s public health system.
ANKARA — Iranian officials said Thursday that US-Israeli strikes hit Tehran’s historic Pasteur Institute, a century-old pillar of the country’s public health system, in what they describe as a major blow to Iran’s scientific and medical infrastructure.
What happened: Iranian state media reported the facility sustained extensive damage, citing the country’s Health Ministry.
“Heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous: the American-Israeli aggressors have attacked the Pasteur Institute of Iran — the oldest and most prestigious research and public health center in Iran and the entire Middle East,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on X.
“This is not merely another war crime committed as part of an illegal war; it is a barbaric assault on basic human core values,” he added.
Neither the United States nor Israel has assumed responsibility for the strike as of this writing.
A public health legacy: The institution traces its roots to earlier public health efforts in Iran, when foreign and local physicians worked to contain recurring outbreaks of cholera, plague and other infectious diseases, laying the groundwork for a more institutionalized response to epidemics.
The institute, formally established in the early 1920s in cooperation with the Paris-based Pasteur Institute, a leading global center for infectious disease research, microbiology and vaccine development, emerged after World War I amid widespread famine and epidemics that underscored the urgent need for a modern public health infrastructure.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the institute continued to operate under the state-run health system, playing a central role in Iran’s expanding public health network, including vaccine production, infectious disease control programs, and the development of diagnostic laboratories.
Vali Nasr, an Iranian-American professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, described the institute as “an icon of Iran’s health care system, a symbol of modern Iran.”
“Destroying it could have no other purpose than assaulting Iran’s history, erasing the history of its modernization and development — take Iranians back to the Stone Age,” he posted on X.
Know more: The reported strike comes amid broader destruction linked to the conflict, which began Feb. 28. At least 3,519 people have been killed since the war erupted, including 1,598 civilians and at least 244 children, according to the US-based rights group HRANA.
More than 113,000 civilian sites, including homes, schools and commercial facilities, have been damaged in US-Israeli attacks, according to figures released by Iran’s Red Crescent and carried by state media.
