Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has slammed a US-Israeli attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran, situated in the country’s capital, calling them “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous”.

Calling it the oldest health centre in both Iran and the “entire Middle East”, Baghaei notes that the institute was founded in 1920 through an agreement between Tehran and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

“This is not merely another war crime committed as part of an illegal war; it is a barbaric assault on basic human core values,” the spokesperson adds.