Speaking on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Children and Armed Conflict, held to review the 2025 report of the UN Secretary-General, Iravani said the report had failed to adequately reflect the devastating humanitarian consequences of what he described as Israel’s 12-day war against Iran in June 2025, particularly its impact on children. He said that 47 Iranian children were killed during the conflict.
“We cannot discuss the protection of children without addressing one of the gravest war crimes committed against Iranian children by the United States and the Israeli regime,” Iravani told the council.
The Iranian envoy alleged that the United States and Israel deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure during their recent military operations against Iran. He said that numerous schools and educational institutions, along with other civilian sites, were struck, destroyed, or severely damaged. According to Iravani, 220 children, including 17 under the age of five, were killed in the attacks.
He described the incident at the Minab primary school in Hormozgan Province as the most shocking case. According to Iravani, the school was struck twice by U.S. missiles during school hours while 264 students were in their classrooms. He said the attack killed 168 boys and girls between the ages of seven and 12, as well as teachers and parents, and injured more than 96 others. Many victims, he added, remained trapped under the rubble for hours, and some bodies were so badly damaged that they could not be identified.
“These were children exercising their fundamental right to education in a place that should have been safe,” Iravani said. “They were civilians protected under international humanitarian law.”
The ambassador argued that the attack on the Minab school constituted two of the six grave violations against children recognized by the Security Council: the killing and maiming of children, and attacks on schools. He accused the United States of committing a war crime and said the incident was “not only an Iranian tragedy, but also a challenge to the credibility of the international legal order upon which the United Nations is founded.”
Iravani reiterated Iran’s condemnation of what he called “heinous war crimes” and demanded full accountability for all those responsible.
“The memory of Minab’s children demands justice, accountability, and action—not silence,” he said. “The protection of children must not be selective. International law must be applied equally to all.”
MNA