Iran schoolgirls deaths part of 'realities of war' says minister

Cabinet minister Sarah Sackman has refused to condemn the US-Israel school massacre in Iran in an interview with Sky News. The tomahawk bomb that fell on the primary school in Minab is highly likely to be a US bomb after verification by military specialists. This horrific war crime resulted in the murder of 175 people, most of those were children between the ages of 7 and 12.

The Independent reported:

Investigative group Bellingcat says a newly released video “appears to contradict” US President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran was responsible for the explosion.

It comes as mounting evidence points to US culpability for the February 28 strike, which hit a school adjacent to a Revolutionary Guard base in Minab, Iran, in the country’s southern Hormozgan Province.

However, Sackman’s abhorrent view is that the incident simply represents the ‘realities of war’.

Iran: in which reality are children an acceptable loss?

It never seems to be the ‘realities of war’ when it comes to the deaths of Western or Israeli children. As we have seen in Gaza, Israel kill an average of 28 Palestinian children every day. Many of these children have been killed before they even reached the age of one.

Evidently, these supposed “realities” are shaped by those who perpetrate them. And the reality is that the killings of people in the Global South are entirely acceptable to the so-called international order.

In an interview with Sky News on Tuesday, Sarah Sackman, a British minister has refused to declare the school massacre in Iran, which killed 165 people, many of them children, a war crime, labelling it the "realities of war"https://t.co/lAWVLtqAbL

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) March 10, 2026

Realities of Western war

We have written extensively about the illegal war that Zionist US and Israeli forces are waging against Iran’s civilian population. So far, their attacks have reportedly killed 1,230 people in Iran and another 394 in Lebanon. Again, 83 of those deaths were children. This latest Western aggression follows a long line of military action taken against the Middle East. Actions which have only served to destabilise and traumatise the region. The US and Israel want the world to look to its ‘military might’ with respect and affirm these hostile states as being the authority of international order.

Instead, it just underscores the inhumanity and lawless nature to which the US and Israel conduct their colonialist agendas. After all, this was never about liberating Iranians from their oppressive leader. It is and has always been about colonialist and imperialist plunder. The ‘liberation’ of Iraq led to the deaths of up to 4.7 million across the Middle East as a result of US/UK military aggression.

Deplorably, no accountability ever follows against Western war-hungry capitalists.

We wrote about the illegal war on Iraq which was said to ‘liberate Iraqis from Saddam Hussain’. In no surprise, it punished the civilian population far more than it benefitted them. Joe Glenton wrote in January:

The truth is that the Iraq War was illegal and killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people. The war destabilised the entire Middle East region, leaving a lasting impact on those who carried it out. By all measures, it was an unmitigated disaster. Yet, bizarrely, figures like Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio are clamouring to revive colonialism. Regime change in Iraq clearly taught them that war is profitable for the West.

Pointing to the actual result of Western military ‘intervention’ in the Middle East, Glenton added:

Since the ousting of the pre-2003 government, Iraq has become a lucrative cash cow for certain players, including global arms firms – what I prefer to call Big Death. Welcome to the military charity-industrial complex.

This post on X highlights the real motivating factors for the US:

America didn't bring democracy to Iran- it stole it. In 1954, the CIA overthrew Iran's elected leader Mossadegh because he wanted Iranians to control their own oil.

US don't have a foreign policy-US have a franchise model: install puppets, steal resources, call it "stability." pic.twitter.com/WsnEFfc3Kt

— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) January 10, 2026

UK involved in US war crimes once again, albeit sluggishly

Three US B1-B Lancer aircrafts recently departed from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire following Keir Starmer’s choice to allow the US to use our bases. Simultaneously, Iran saw its most intense day of bombing. HMS Dragon, after a week of loading it with weapons and artillery, set sail yesterday for Iran. Although, this was four days later than planned which suggests a sluggish approach by the current government to jump into such flagrant illegal military actions.

Nevertheless, the UK is involved in this war, and when the aggression was unprovoked, there can be no ‘defence’ about it. After all, Iran has the right to self defence under international law – aggressors do not.

As a result, Western racist hypocrisy and our clear double standards are on full display. Global South countries do not have legal rights no matter the circumstances, whereas the West has all the rights no matter the circumstances.

We all know that there can never be peace or freedom without justice. Unwarranted and unwelcome Western intervention led to a more extreme government taking over in Iran – stomping all over their rights and freedoms will not lead to a more progressive government. Neither will mass grief and trauma.

Some days you find out things about people you’ve barely heard of before.

Today I found out that @sarahsackman

– Is the main driver behind banning the 800 year right to a Jury Trial.
– Was trained at the Israel Supreme Court
– Won’t say the Minab Massacre was a War Crime. https://t.co/E2nQKfyTC9

— Mountain (@sharpeleven) March 10, 2026

Corrupt

We only have to look to Sarah Sackman’s background and her actions to question the legitimacy of her ‘professional view’. Some light scrutiny suggests her view is little more than a corrupted, foreign-influenced stance that does not reflect the values of ordinary British people. For instance, she supports the genocide on Gaza, the majority of British people do not.

Furthermore, the post above highlights how Sackman played a key role in pushing through the systemic cuts to the human rights of some defendants in the UK. After all, the right to a fair trial affords the right to a trial by jury under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Consequently, the optics can’t be avoided. Sackman wants to ignore the human rights of those murdered by the US and Israel, whilst taking crucial human rights away from British citizens. To do so whilst the UK is encroaching further and further into war with Iran is beyond despicable.

The British people must reckon with the reality that by creating a hierarchy of human rights and dignity abroad, we invite a hierarchy of human rights and indignity at home.

Featured image via the Canary