In a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and President of the UN Security Council Jamal Fares Alrowaiei on April 2, Saeed Iravani denounces an unlawful and deliberate strike on a major civilian health and research facility, while also citing recent statements by the US president as evidence of intent to target critical civilian infrastructure.

The letter also calls on the Security Council to take action and stresses that Iran will adopt necessary and proportionate measures to defend its sovereignty and protect its population.

What follows is the text of the letters:

Excellency,

Upon instructions from my Government, and with reference to our communications regarding the ongoing war of aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against the Islamic Republic of Iran, I am writing to inform you and the members of the Security Council of a heartbreaking and outrageous attack carried out today, 2 April 2026, by the U.S.-Israeli aggressors against the Pasteur Institute of Iran-the oldest and most prestigious research and public health center in the Middle East, founded in 1920 in collaboration with the Pasteur Institute of Paris. This act constitutes not merely a war crime in an unlawful war; it is a barbaric assault on fundamental human values.

At the same time, the President of the United States has, in parallel with the ongoing attacks by the United States and the Israeli regime against civilians, civilian objects and critical infrastructure in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including strikes on bridges, continued to issue explicit threats to destroy Iran's infrastructure. On 1 April 2026, the President publicly threatened to "hit Iran extremely hard", to "bring them back to the Stone Age", and to strike "each and every one of their electric generating plants ... very hard and probably simultaneously". These disgraceful statements followed his earlier remarks of 30 March 2026, in which he warned that, absent a prompt agreement with Iran, the United States would "blow up and completely obliterate" Iran's critical civilian infrastructure, including electric generating plants, oil facilities, Kharg Island and desalination facilities. Similarly, on 21 March 2026, he threatened to "hit and obliterate" Iran's power plants, "starting with the biggest one first."

The statements of the President of the United States constitute clear, direct and public evidence of intent (mens rea) to commit war crimes under international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Such threats explicitly contemplate the large- scale targeting and destruction of civilian objects, including infrastructure indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.

The United States shall bear full international legal responsibility for any consequences arising from these unlawful threats, as well as from any acts carried out pursuant thereto. Such internationally wrongful acts, if carried out, would engage the responsibility of the United States, as well as the individual criminal liability of those involved in the planning, ordering or execution of such acts, who must be held accountable.

In response to these deliberate and unlawful threats and attacks, and in the continued absence of effective action by the Security Council in discharging its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the Islamic Republic of Iran has no alternative but to exercise its inherent right of self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. The Islamic Republic of Iran will take all necessary and proportionate measures to safeguard and defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, ensure the security of its people, and protect its vital national interests.

I should be grateful if you would have the present letter brought to the attention of the members of the Security Council and circulated as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.