In a post on his X account on Friday, Baghaei said, “The Lancet, a world-leading medical journal, has warned that damage to the Pasteur Institute of Iran, as a result of US-Israeli attacks, threatens regional health security.
According to The Lancet, the Pasteur Institute of Iran has been a pillar of the country’s public health system for more than a century. This institute has provided key public health infrastructure on multiple fronts, including vaccine development and production, national reference laboratory services, diagnostics, and genomic surveillance for infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, cholera, rabies, measles, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and viral hepatitis. The loss of the institute is not merely symbolic; it represents a real, immediate, and dangerous threat to public health. [...] This is not solely a national issue; regional health security is also at risk.”
Baghaei added, “Attacking a century-old scientific and public health institution is not merely an attack on a building; it is an assault on people’s right to health, science, and life.
The American-Israeli deliberate attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran was a flagrant war crime. The perpetrators must be held accountable”.
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May 22, 2026, 9:54 a.m.
News ID: 86161342
Tehran, IRNA – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has condemned the US-Israeli attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran, warning that the destruction of the century-old public health institution poses an immediate threat to both national and regional health security, and calling it a “flagrant war crime”.