People searching through the rubble of a destroyed school in Minab, southern Iran`s Hormozgan province. (Telegram)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned the massacre of dozens of innocent schoolgirls in an Israeli attack against an elementary school in the southern province of Hormozgan, stressing that the vicious crime will not go unanswered.

"The destroyed building is a primary school for girls in the south of Iran. It was bombed in broad daylight, when packed with young pupils," he wrote on the social media platform X on Saturday evening, posting a photo of the bombed-out school.

He added, "Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone."

The top Iranian diplomat pointed out that these crimes will not go unpunished.

Local officials said at least 82 schoolgirls lost their lives and 92 others were injured in the joint US-Israeli aggression against the Shajareye Tayyebeh School in Minab.

Minab`s governor, Mohammad Radmehr, said rescue and aid operations were underway at the school and that the security situation in the city was under control.

Screams of grief filled the air in Minab, Iran, after an US-Israeli attack on an elementary school martyred multiple students.

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The attack on the school was part of the joint US-Israeli aggression against Iran, which began early on Saturday.

As in the June aggression, the offensive was launched amid diplomatic talks on Tehran`s nuclear program.

The Iranian armed forces launched massive missile strikes in retaliation, targeting the Israeli-occupied territories and American military bases across the region.

The Israeli-American aggression came in the middle of indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington, mediated by the Omani government.

Earlier on Saturday, in an interview with NBC News, asserted that "regime change" in the Islamic Republic of Iran is an "impossible mission."

Iran`s top diplomat said the Islamic Republic is a "great nation with a magnificent civilization" that has endured for thousands of years.

"We know how to defend ourselves and we will survive," he told the US news channel, adding that the moment the aggression stops, Iran will also stop defending itself.