Universities Under Fire: How the US-Iran War Turned Campuses Into Targets Across the Middle East

On March 30, 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued an ultimatum: the United States must officially condemn the bombing of Iranian universities by noon Iran Standard Time, or "its universities in the region" would face retaliation [1]. The statement declared that "all universities of the occupier regime and American universities in the West Asia region will be legitimate targets for us" [2]. It advised students, faculty, and nearby residents to evacuate at least one kilometer from American campuses [3].

Eight days later, on April 7, US embassies in Bahrain and Egypt issued fresh security warnings citing intelligence that "Iran and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target American universities" in those countries [4]. The warnings came on the same day US-Israeli strikes hit Sharif University of Technology in Tehran — often called the MIT of Iran — killing 34 people and severely damaging its mosque and laboratories [5].

The result is an extraordinary situation: dozens of American university campuses spread across the Persian Gulf and the broader Middle East are now caught between two belligerents, with thousands of students and faculty sheltering in place or evacuating as the 39-day-old war grinds on.

The Campuses at Risk

The United States maintains a significant academic footprint in the Middle East. Qatar alone hosts six US university branch campuses inside Education City in Doha — Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Virginia Commonwealth, and Weill Cornell Medicine [6]. The UAE is home to NYU Abu Dhabi, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and several others [7]. Bahrain hosts the American University of Bahrain, while Lebanon's American University of Beirut is one of the oldest American-affiliated institutions in the region [3].

Source: Inside Higher Ed / Institute of International Education

Data as of Apr 7, 2026CSV

Education City houses over 4,400 students from more than 110 countries [7]. NYU Abu Dhabi enrolls more than 2,000 undergraduates and 200 graduate students, with 375 faculty members [7]. Across the region, exact figures for American nationals specifically are not publicly available, but the total population of students, faculty, and staff at US-affiliated campuses numbers in the tens of thousands.

Nearly all of these institutions have now either closed entirely or moved to remote operations. Georgetown's Qatar campus, which had been planning a return to hybrid learning, reversed course and continued remote-only instruction after the IRGC threat [8]. Northwestern's Qatar dean, Marwan Kraidy, emailed students that "as a precautionary measure, we will temporarily close access to the NU-Q building until further notice" [9]. NYU Abu Dhabi closed indefinitely; students living on campus had already been relocated during spring break [6]. The American University of Beirut restricted access to essential personnel only [9].

Two weeks before the IRGC ultimatum, students in Education City dorms were briefly evacuated during Iranian missile strikes on Gulf targets, though they returned the same day [6]. Rice University canceled a summer study-abroad program in Amman, Jordan, and multiple other institutions — including Northeastern, Middlebury, Harvard, Penn State, and Brown — suspended Middle East travel [6].

What Triggered the Threats

The IRGC's declaration did not emerge in a vacuum. It came as direct retaliation for US-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian academic and research institutions, which Iran frames as an assault on its scientific and cultural foundations [10].

Since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28, 2026 — when the US and Israel launched nearly 900 coordinated strikes on Iranian military, nuclear, and leadership targets [11] — the conflict has expanded well beyond military infrastructure. Iran's Ministry of Science reported that at least 30 universities have been attacked, along with 55 libraries (two completely destroyed) and 56 heritage sites [5][10].

Source: Iran Ministry of Science via Al Jazeera

Data as of Apr 7, 2026CSV

The specific strikes that preceded the IRGC ultimatum include:

• Iran University of Science and Technology (Tehran), March 28: A research center developing domestically made satellites was reduced to rubble [10].
• Isfahan University, March 29: Hit for the second time since the war began, wounding four staff members [10].
• Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran), April 4: The Laser and Plasma Research Institute was bombed. The university condemned it as "a clear attack on reason, research, and freedom of thought" [5].
• Sharif University of Technology (Tehran), April 6: Extensive damage to laboratories and the campus mosque. Iran's first vice president accused the US of using a bunker-buster bomb [5].
• Pasteur Institute (Tehran): The century-old infectious disease and vaccine research institute, originally founded in collaboration with Paris's Institut Pasteur, was also struck [10].

Iran's Culture and Tourism Minister Reza Salehi Amiri described the campaign as a "deliberate and conscious attack" on Iranian identity, stating that "restoration can never return an artefact to its starting point" [10].

The Intelligence Basis for US Embassy Warnings

The US embassy warnings in Bahrain and Egypt differ in specificity and tone. The Bahrain embassy directed all US government employees and American citizens to "shelter in a secure structure and stay away from windows until further notice," and offered assistance to those wishing to leave the Middle East [4]. The Egypt embassy took a less urgent approach, advising citizens to monitor news and noting that "Egyptian authorities generally offer effective security protection," while acknowledging that extremists and Iranian-aligned actors have an interest in planning attacks [4].

Neither warning disclosed the specific intelligence underlying the assessment. The language — "may intend to target" — suggests a precautionary advisory based on the IRGC's public statements rather than a specific, imminent threat detected by intelligence agencies [4]. This is consistent with the broader pattern of US warnings since the war began: the State Department has issued "DEPART NOW" advisories for 16 Middle Eastern countries and ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel from embassies in Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE [12].

At least nine US missions in the region have issued repeated shelter-in-place directives since late February [12]. Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on March 5 raising concerns about evacuation capacity for American citizens stranded in the region [13].

Iran's Record of Extraterritorial Operations

The question of whether the IRGC can carry out strikes on university campuses in Gulf states and Egypt is distinct from whether it would. Iran has demonstrated the capability to strike targets across the Persian Gulf — its March 2026 attacks on the UAE prompted a joint condemnation from six Gulf states and Jordan on March 26 [14]. The IRGC has launched drone and missile strikes against targets in Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, and other Gulf states during the current conflict [15].

However, Iran's history of targeting academic institutions abroad is limited primarily to cyber operations. In one documented case, nine Iranians working for the IRGC hacked 7,998 professors at 320 universities across five countries over a five-year period, with 3,768 of the targeted professors at 144 US universities [16]. Physical attacks on academics have historically flowed in the opposite direction: Israeli operations killed at least five Iranian nuclear scientists between 2010 and 2020, and the June 2025 twelve-day war resulted in the deaths of approximately 20 Iranian scientists and engineers, according to IDF claims and media reporting [17][18].

This asymmetry is central to Iran's stated justification. Tehran frames the IRGC threats as proportional retaliation — if Iranian universities and academics are targeted, American universities in the region become equivalent targets [1]. Independent analysts have noted that the deliberate striking of universities and research institutions, regardless of which side carries it out, represents an escalation with few precedents in modern interstate conflict [19].

The IRGC and Its Proxies: Capability and Reach

The threats are attributed to the IRGC itself, not to specific proxy forces such as Hezbollah or Kataib Hezbollah [1][2]. This distinction matters because the IRGC has direct missile and drone capabilities that proxies in the region may lack in the Gulf context.

Since the war began, the IRGC has demonstrated the ability to strike across the Strait of Hormuz and into Gulf Arab territory. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz on March 2 and made 21 confirmed attacks on merchant ships by March 12 [11]. Iranian strikes hit UAE infrastructure, prompting emergency diplomatic coordination among Gulf Cooperation Council members [14].

The IRGC's capacity to hit fixed, known locations — which university campuses are — is well established. The threat to campuses is therefore technically credible, though actually striking a university in a Gulf state allied with the United States would represent a dramatic escalation of the conflict's scope, potentially drawing additional states into direct hostilities.

Bahrain and Egypt: Caught Between Patrons

Bahrain and Egypt occupy uncomfortable positions as US security partners that also face direct Iranian threats. Their responses to the university warnings illustrate the constraints both governments face.

Egypt has pursued a de-escalation role. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi assured Bahrain's King Hamad of Egypt's "full solidarity" with Gulf states and affirmed readiness to support regional security [20]. On April 5, Egypt intensified diplomatic engagement aimed at ending the war, even as President Trump threatened Iranian infrastructure [21]. Egypt's approach has been to position itself as a mediator rather than a combatant — a role that limits its willingness to publicly confront Iran.

Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, is more directly exposed. A PassBlue analysis described Bahrain as attempting to "hold itself together" amid the war [22]. The kingdom joined the March 26 joint Gulf condemnation of Iranian attacks but faces the dual pressure of housing critical US military infrastructure while managing a domestic population with significant Shia ties to Iran [14].

Neither government has publicly addressed the specific university threats. Their silence reflects a calculated ambiguity: publicly condemning Iran could provoke further targeting, while appearing to dismiss the threat could undermine confidence among American institutions operating on their soil.

Timeline and Triggering Events

The university threats are not an isolated campaign but part of the broader escalation that followed failed nuclear negotiations in Geneva and the June 2025 twelve-day air conflict between Israel and Iran [11].

Key dates:

• February 28, 2026: Operation Epic Fury begins with US-Israeli coordinated strikes on Iran [11].
• March 2: Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz [11].
• March 5: Senator Warren writes to State Department about US citizen evacuation [13].
• March 21: US strikes Natanz nuclear facility with bunker-buster bombs [11].
• March 22: US Embassy in Jordan issues worldwide caution [23].
• March 28-29: Strikes hit Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University [10].
• March 30: IRGC issues ultimatum declaring US universities "legitimate targets" [1].
• March 31: Education City, NYU Abu Dhabi, and other campuses close or go remote [6][8].
• April 4: Shahid Beheshti University's Laser and Plasma Research Institute bombed [5].
• April 5: Trump sets deadline for Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz [5].
• April 6: Sharif University of Technology struck; 34 killed in wider attacks [5].
• April 7: US embassies in Bahrain and Egypt issue university-specific warnings [4].

The pattern shows the university dimension of the conflict escalating in tandem with broader military operations. Each major strike on an Iranian academic institution has been followed by intensified IRGC rhetoric, and the April 7 embassy warnings suggest US intelligence assesses the risk of retaliation against American campuses as growing.

What Remains Unknown

Several gaps in the public record limit a full assessment of the threat. The total number of American nationals currently at branch campuses in the region is not publicly reported by any single source. The specific intelligence basis for distinguishing the Bahrain and Egypt warnings from the broader regional advisories has not been disclosed. And the degree to which Gulf governments are actively providing additional security to American campuses — beyond their general law enforcement presence — is unclear.

What is clear is that universities on both sides of this war have become targets in a conflict that has already killed thousands and disrupted global energy markets, with Brent crude surpassing $126 per barrel at its peak [11]. The transformation of campuses from neutral spaces of learning into declared military objectives marks a boundary that, once crossed, will be difficult to restore — regardless of how this war ends.