A Serious Answer to a Silly Question

By Noah Rothman

Monday, April 06, 2026

 

Arizona Representative Yassamin Ansari is, by her own admission, confused:

 

 

It’s a question that is probably being asked by many who, unlike Ansari, don’t have access to classified materials or a cadre of regional experts and military officials who could easily clear up her misunderstanding.

 

The joint coalition leveled Sharif University of Technology’s information and communication technology building in a Monday airstrike — one of several university annexes to be targeted over the course of this war. Those strikes have produced few casualties so far, as classes across the country have been moved online since the outset of hostilities. Those strikes have, however, crippled targets that the United States and Israel contend are used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to conduct research with military applications.

 

In this regard, Sharif University was no different from the other alleged institutions of learning in which the Islamic Republic blurred the lines between civilian and military research.

 

“An Iranian technological university engaged in military and ballistic missile-related projects for the Iranian government; provides support to entities involved in Iran’s military and in production and procurement for Iran’s ballistic missile program,” the organization Iran Watch, an arm of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, observed:

 

Faculties include aerospace engineering, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, energy engineering, industrial engineering, management and economics, materials science and engineering, mathematical sciences, mechanical engineering, philosophy of science, and physics; engineering department sanctioned by Canada in 2012 for involvement in Iran’s proliferation activities or affiliation with the IRGC.

 

In addition, the university reportedly facilitated procurement for Iran’s nuclear weapons program, contributing to Iran’s uranium enrichment program. It has been sanctioned in the past by the European Union as well as the British, French, and Japanese governments. Neither the United States nor Israel has elaborated yet on the activities at Sharif University that these strikes were designed to frustrate. But the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) carves out exceptions to proscriptions on inherently civilian facilities, such as universities, if they are used to advance military objectives in wartime.

 

Hopefully, that answers the representative’s question. But she should elaborate on the thought process that led her to ask it in the first place. What other possible motive could the joint coalition have had for attacking this and other appendages of Iran’s universities? Presumably, Ansari could not even conceive of the simplest explanation — that the Islamic Republic had used these facilities not just to placidly contribute to the sum of human knowledge but also to advance its geostrategic objectives. So, what was she thinking?