Iran war breaks UN Charter, strike on school shocking: UN probe

An independent United Nations probe investigating rights violations in Iran condemned on Wednesday attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran as well as Tehran's retaliatory strikes across the region, saying they violated the UN Charter.

The United Nations Charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

"These attacks, which were followed by Iran's retaliatory strikes across the region, run counter to the UN Charter," the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a statement.

It also expressed deep shock over a strike that hit the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls school in Minab in southern Iran on Saturday, the first day of the US and Israeli attacks.

Most of the victims appear to have been schoolgirls aged seven to 12, it said.

Earlier on Wednesday a separate UN panel of experts said more than 160 children were killed, citing reports.

The UN fact-finding probe said the Iranian population was now caught between a large-scale military campaign that may go on for weeks and a government in Tehran which has a long record of human rights abuses.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and face torture and the death penalty, the UN probe said, following a brutal crackdown on protests that began on 28 December 2025, in response to the country's economic crisis.

It said protesters currently detained in prisons could be put at risk from any US-Israeli strikes. A British couple jailed in Iran described on Tuesday explosions shaking Evin prison where they are being held and damage to their wing as the conflict intensifies.

The statement said the killing of dozens of Iranian officials – who have included Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – in the US-Israeli airstrikes was not an acceptable means to deliver justice under international law.