World Federation of Scientific Workers
Statement
Stop the wars in the Middle East: the scientific community must rise
Five weeks after the outbreak of the war waged by the United States and the State of Israel against Iran on 28 February 2026, military escalation has reached a critical threshold across the Middle East, from Lebanon to the Gulf countries. Launched in the midst of diplomatic negotiations and in clear violation of international law, this war continues to intensify, expanding its targets and worsening its human, social, and environmental consequences.
The initial strikes on Tehran were quickly followed by a campaign of indiscriminate bombardment targeting not only military objectives but also essential energy facilities, as well as civilian infrastructure, particularly in the medical, academic, research, and urban sectors. By attacking the very conditions of social life and places of knowledge and care, this war is changing in nature: it is becoming a war against society as a whole. It constitutes a serious violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, especially those concerning the protection of civilian populations.
Nothing can justify such an outpouring of violence. The argument of self-defence does not withstand scrutiny. This conflict as it engulfs as well, Gaza, the rest of the Palestinian territories and Lebanon — forms part of a logic of power aimed at imposing a regional order based on force, domination and control over both populations and strategic resources, foremost among them gas and oil.
Once again, rejecting this war does not in any way mean supporting a regime, of whatever nature. As the WFSW has stated before, our solidarity lies with the Iranian, Palestinian, and Lebanese peoples, who, in the first case, suffer both the effects of an authoritarian regime and those of a double external aggression, and in the latter two cases, the expansionism and extreme militarisation of the State of Israel. History has shown that bombs do not liberate people. They destroy infrastructures, weaken societies, and close off the very spaces in which democratic dynamics can emerge.
What is at stake today goes far beyond the Iranian context alone. The extension of strikes to vital infrastructures, the risks of regional conflagration, tensions surrounding global energy routes, and the devastating destructions endured by Lebanon following Gaza, all pose a direct threat to international stability. This headlong rush into militarism—including the staggering proposal emanating from the White House to raise the US military budget to 1.5 trillion dollars by 2027, more than half the combined GDP of all African countries — diverts considerable resources that should instead be devoted to the real urgencies of the twenty-first century, foremost among them, climate change, poverty and hunger in large parts of the world, social inequalities and global health crises.
In this context, silence is not an option.
The WFSW, and with it the international scientific community, is directly concerned. When universities are struck, when hospitals are destroyed, when research infrastructures are dismantled, it is the very possibility of generating, transmitting, and sharing knowledge that is attacked and destroyed. When war becomes a mode of regulating international relations, scientific cooperation – based on exchange, trust, and universality – is undermined.
Scientists cannot remain silent observers. They bear a particular responsibility: to state clearly and resolutely that security cannot be founded on violence, that raw military power does not resolve political crises, and that the major challenges facing humanity, on the contrary, require cooperation, shared knowledge, and solidarity.
It is therefore urgent to mobilise.
Accordingly, the WFSW calls on scientists, academics, members of research institutions and their networks worldwide, to take a public stand against these wars — and all war —, support any initiative aimed at an immediate ceasefire with the resumption of diplomatic negotiations, and to uphold strict respect for international law, in particular the protection of civilian populations and non-military infrastructures.
This is not merely about opposing a war. It is about defending a certain vision of science and its role in society: a science in the service of peace, justice, and human progress, not one subordinated to the logics of war and domination.
In the face of the current escalation, one fact is clear: collective security can never be ensured by the law of the strongest. It rests on international law, on cooperation between peoples, and on the capacity to build political solutions to conflicts.
Co-Presidents of the FMTS-WFSW – April 6, 2026
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PDF Document (English – French): WFSW_Israeli-US Attack – Statement EN_FR
Article on the FMTS-WFSW website:
EN: https://fmts-wfsw.org/2026/05/stop-the-wars-in-the-middle-east/?lang=en
FR: https://fmts-wfsw.org/2026/05/halte-aux-guerres-au-moyen-orient/
