Strikes on Iran Space Research Centre

On 13 March 2026, five consecutive air strikes conducted during a night-time attack, targeted the primary research complex of the Iranian Space Agency in Tehran. On 14 March 2026, the IDF publicly announced on X.com (formerly Twitter) that it had destroyed Iran's primary space research center, describing it as containing "strategic laboratories used for research, including developing military satellites, intelligence collection, and directing fire toward targets across the Middle East." However, Iranian sources described these facilities as entirely civilian in function, engaged in environmental remote sensing, flood and drought monitoring, satellite communications research, and civilian space transport systems development.

On 22 April 2026, Iran submitted an official protest letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the Security Council, declaring the attacks deliberate acts of state terrorism and war crimes, specifically citing violations of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (Articles 1 and 3) and international humanitarian law. In that letter, Iran's Ambassador stated that the deliberate targeting of "ground stations and observatories disrupts space services of international interest, including environmental monitoring, natural disaster management, and global telecommunications. In an interconnected world, such actions undermine the collective interest in the peaceful use of outer space." The Iranian Parliament's Research Center likewise, issued an open letter to the UN and UNESCO characterizing the strikes as "crimes against science."