TEHRAN -- Iran’s president and foreign minister said Friday the mysterious poisoning of schoolgirls in several cities is in line with a hybrid war being waged on the country by the enemies.
The incident started in late November in the holy city of Qom where about 50 female students fell ill and had to be transported to hospital. Similar poisonings have since happened in several other schools in Qom, Tehran, Kermanshah in the west and Ardabil in the northwest. Scores of schoolgirls have been affected in each incident, and some have had to be hospitalized.
President Ebrahim Raisi said, “This is a security project to cause chaos in the country whereby the enemy seeks to instill fear and insecurity among parents and students,”
“One day, the enemies instigate street riots and another day they try to create problems in the field of education and schools because despite all the plots, people across the country came to the scene and defeated the enemy on February 11” where several million Iranians took to streets to mark the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, Raisi said.
The president said he had tasked his ministers of intelligence and interior to follow up the issue at the earliest and make their findings public.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian hit out at Western governments for “shedding crocodile tears” over the poisonings.
“The interventionist reaction of some Western authorities to the question of the suspected poisoning of dear Iranian female students is the continuation of the enemy’s hybrid war,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
“The relevant institutions of the country are following up seriously and meticulously examining its dimensions. The great nation of Iran knows crocodile tears very well!”
His remarks came after Germany said the circumstances surrounding the poisoning of schoolgirls in Iran should be fully investigated by authorities.
“The reports of schoolgirls being poisoned in Iran are shocking,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Twitter.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the issue was “deeply concerning” and the world needed to know what is causing the ailments.
Iranian officials have already said foreign intelligence agencies, especially the CIA, orchestrated the violent riots which hit Iran for several weeks.
Many Western countries expressed their support for the riots which claimed dozens of lives from security forces and innocent people.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kanaan said Friday the Iranian government’s priority is to swiftly pursue and root out the suspicious poisonings.
“The Islamic Republic will not have any doubt or delay in pursuing the reasons and causes of the suspicious event,” he said.