The exhibition, unveiled as COP31 opened in Antalya on Monday, features photographs of pupils who died when the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, southern Iran, was struck on 28 February. A message among the portraits blames the United States and Israel for their deaths.
Visitors have also been shown using a virtual reality headset at the pavilion, which depicts the school attack. The display brings the civilian consequences of the Iran war into a conference where national exhibitions ordinarily concentrate on emissions reductions, climate resilience and clean energy.
Iranian authorities initially said at least 168 children and 14 teachers were killed. Other accounts have given different casualty figures, and a verified toll remains unavailable. The strike occurred during the opening hours of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, near a facility associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Evidence examined following the bombing pointed strongly towards US responsibility. Satellite images, videos of missile impacts and assessments by weapons specialists linked the attack on the surrounding complex to American Tomahawk cruise missiles. Preliminary findings of a US military investigation indicated that outdated targeting information may have caused American forces to strike the school mistakenly.
The school had previously formed part of a larger military compound but was separated from adjacent facilities by walls years before the bombing. Imagery showed signs of its civilian use, including children’s murals and a distinct entrance, raising questions about the intelligence employed to identify targets.
Washington said it would not deliberately attack a school and initiated an investigation into the incident. US officials described early investigative conclusions as provisional. The publicly established evidence does not demonstrate that the school was intentionally targeted, a distinction relevant under international humanitarian law.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei rejected a subsequent US military explanation linking the site to missile operations, insisting that the building was an active educational institution. Tehran has described the bombing as a grave violation of the laws of war and demanded accountability.
The memorial at COP31 extends that dispute beyond diplomatic exchanges and battlefield investigations. Its placement gives delegates and visitors a direct encounter with Iran’s account of the attack, while the summit’s formal negotiations remain focused on the international response to climate change.
The presentation also illustrates the difficulty of separating environmental diplomacy from armed conflict. Fighting involving Iran has disrupted energy markets, intensified concerns over fuel supplies and complicated discussions about the pace of the transition away from fossil fuels. Those questions are prominent at this year’s meeting, although the school bombing is not part of its negotiating agenda.
The United States has not sent an official negotiating delegation to COP31 under President Donald Trump, who withdrew Washington from international climate cooperation. Its absence means Iranian representatives can present their account at the summit without a US government delegation participating in the formal climate discussions.
Turkey is presiding over the conference, which runs from 9 to 20 November, while Australia leads negotiations under agreed arrangements. Delegations are examining climate finance, adaptation measures and ways to implement existing commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The summit opened amid disagreements over the financing that developing economies say they need to protect communities from worsening climate impacts. Conference president Murat Kurum has emphasised implementation of existing pledges, including an initiative aimed at expanding electricity’s share of worldwide energy consumption by 2035.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell has urged governments to accelerate action on clean energy and methane emissions, warning that progress remains insufficient. The talks are also taking place against a backdrop of growing pressure on governments to deliver funding for adaptation rather than add to the debts of vulnerable countries.
The Iranian pavilion forms part of a wider exhibition programme alongside the negotiations. Such national spaces allow governments to communicate priorities through displays and discussions, without turning those presentations into formally agreed conference positions.
Photographs from the opening day show delegates viewing the Iranian installation on Monday. The memorial’s portraits are arranged around the framed accusation, while a separate image shows a visitor wearing the virtual reality headset inside the Iranian exhibition pavilion.
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