Iran’s foreign minister accuses the US of a deliberate assault after a missile hit a school, killing over 175, as the UN rights council debates the incident.

GENEVA: Iran’s foreign minister has labelled a deadly missile strike on an Iranian school a “calculated” assault and a war crime by the United States.

In a video address to the United Nations Human Rights Council, Abbas Araghchi condemned the attack on an elementary school in Minab which killed over 175 students and teachers.

The strike occurred on February 28, the first day of a wider Middle East war launched by the US and Israel against Iran.

Preliminary findings from a US military investigation reported by The New York Times attributed the strike to a targeting error.

The report stated a US Tomahawk cruise missile intended for an adjacent former military base hit the school due to outdated coordinates.

Araghchi rejected the explanation, citing the advanced technology available to the American-Israeli aggressors.

“No one can believe that the attack on the school was anything other than deliberate and intentional,” he told the council.

He insisted the atrocity was a war crime and a crime against humanity demanding unequivocal condemnation.

“The United States’ contradictory remarks aimed at justifying their crime could not, in any manner, elude their responsibility,” Araghchi said.

President Donald Trump had initially suggested Iran itself may have been responsible for the strike.

The minister stressed the attack was not a mere incident or miscalculation but a grave atrocity.

 The Sun Malaysia