VCU shuts down Qatar campus amid threats of Iranian retaliation

VCU was already allowing students at its Qatar campus to switch to remote learning in the wake of the launch of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran last month.

Now the school has closed its campus and moved all instruction online, according to a statement on the VCUarts Qatar website.

“Amid the ongoing regional situation, the university has moved to remote operations, and public access to its premises are not available,” the message reads.

VCU opened its Qatar campus in 1998 in Education City in Doha, and has since been joined by Weill Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Carnegie-Mellon, Northwestern, HEC Paris and University College-London.

VCUarts Qatar has more than 300 undergraduate students representing 32 nationalities and more than 1,000 alumni representing 55 different nationalities.

The move to close the campus came after Iran issued a warning that all American college and university campuses in the Middle East are “legitimate targets,” after U.S.-Israeli strikes damaged two Iranian campuses.

“Warning to the criminal rulers of America! The zionist American invading forces have bombed Tehran University of Science and Technology, targeting Iranian universities with their bombings for the umpteenth time,” a statement posted to Twitter from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps read.

More from the statement:

“The reckless rulers of the White House should know that from now on, all universities of the occupying regime and American universities in the West Asia region are legitimate targets for us until two universities are struck in retaliation for the Iranian universities that have been destroyed.

“All staff, professors, and students of American universities in the region, as well as residents in their surroundings, are advised to stay at least one kilometer away from these universities to ensure their safety.”