Iraq weighs suspending recognition of Iranian university after brawl

Shafaq News- Tehran

Iraqi diplomats are following the case of several Iraqi students at Iran's Semnan University after a nighttime brawl at their dormitory, while Iraq’s cultural attaché said steps were underway to suspend recognition of the university over its treatment of the students.

Iraq's acting cultural attaché in Tehran, Haidar Nassar, told Shafaq News on Monday that the trouble began overnight when an intoxicated Iranian man entered the students' dormitory from the street and argued with a group of them before they forced him out. The man returned with a group of friends, and the confrontation escalated into a fight around the dormitory before Iranian security forces stepped in. “The situation was fully under control by 4:00 a.m., with damage limited to a broken main door.”

Three Iraqi students were directly involved in the scuffle, but no injuries, losses, or stolen property have been reported, Nassar said, adding that the Iranian side had pledged to keep the situation under control and to move the students to “a safer, monitored location for their protection.”

Nassar said the fight was an isolated incident unrelated to the students' earlier administrative disputes with the university, including delays in processing their paperwork. Relations had been running smoothly when he visited Semnan months ago and met the university president, but a change in the university's leadership and a subsequent breakdown in communication produced a series of disputes.

The Iraqi side is now moving to penalize the university over what Nassar described as failures in its duties toward Iraqi students, with the measures at an advanced stage and including a push to suspend Iraqi recognition of the institution, a step he said would serve as a deterrent to Semnan and other universities.