Fear Grips: Iran Holds Press Conference In A Classroom – ( Photos) SIXT-MEDIA LANE
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson held a televised press conference on Tuesday from a Tehran classroom that state-linked media said had been damaged in recent strikes, as questions persist over the authorities’ use of civilian sites during wartime.
Images from the briefing showed spokesperson Esmail Baghaei speaking from a podium inside Mahalati School in Tehran. Iranian outlets said the school had been hit in recent attacks and presented the setting as evidence that educational facilities were being targeted.
Holding an official briefing in a classroom also prompted renewed speculation online that some officials may be seeking to operate from civilian buildings.
In recent days, social media users have circulated videos and photographs that appear to show security forces stationed inside schools in Tehran and Shiraz.
Iran International has also reported on security activity inside medical facilities. In one case, it cited a hospital employee who said military commanders held meetings inside a Tehran hospital.
Teachers’ unions have voiced alarm. The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations published an image a day before US-Israeli strikes began showing what it said was military equipment positioned inside a school, warning that classrooms were being turned into “shields for deadly equipment.”
Uniformed officers sit in a school courtyard beneath an Iranian flag in an image shared on social media on March 3, 2026.
Earlier this week, an image was released from a meeting of the interim leadership council, attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and cleric Alireza Arafi.
Hours later, social media posts suggested the meeting had taken place in a ward at Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
Members of Iran’s leadership council meet at an undisclosed location on March 1 with social media users saying the low ceiling and iron door behind them suggest the meeting was held inside Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
Members of Iran’s leadership council meet at an undisclosed location on March 1 with social media users saying the low ceiling and iron door behind them suggest the meeting was held inside Tehran’s Arman Hospital.
International humanitarian law requires parties to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives.
Schools and hospitals are protected unless, and for such time as, they are used for military purposes, and the use of civilians to shield military objectives is prohibited.
The controversy intensified after Iranian media reported that an elementary and preschool complex in Minab, Hormozgan province, adjacent to an IRGC compound, was struck on February 28, killing more than 160 people.
Asked about the incident, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not deliberately target a school and that its objectives were focused on missiles, related manufacturing and launch capabilities, and drones.
“We would have no interest and frankly no incentive to target civilian infrastructure.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said on Monday he had seen differing accounts of what happened in Minab, including claims that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were responsible. He said Israel targets military assets and expressed regret for civilian casualties.
The first known human shield mass-casualty case in this war.
So far, 45 students and teachers have been pulled from the rubble after an IRGC ammunition depot and barracks were built beside a school in Shahrak al-Mahdi, Minab in Hormozgan.
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