White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s announcement of the birth of her daughter prompted a sharp diplomatic response from Iran, with the Iranian Embassy in Armenia using the occasion to draw a direct comparison to the children killed in a February airstrike on an Iranian elementary school.
Leavitt, 28, the youngest White House press secretary in US history, shared the news on social media on Thursday. She posted a photograph holding her newborn and wrote that on May 1st, her daughter Viviana, nicknamed “Vivi,” joined the family. She described her as “perfect and healthy” and said her older child was adjusting happily to having a younger sister.
The Iranian Embassy in Armenia responded on X, writing: “Congratulations to you. Children are innocent and lovable. Those 168 children that your boss killed in the school in Minab, and you justified, were also children. When you kiss your baby, think of the mothers of those children.”
The message referenced the February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab, in Iran’s Hormozgan Province. According to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB and local reports, the attack killed 73 boys and 47 girls, along with 26 teachers, seven parents, a school bus driver, and a pharmacy technician working at a nearby clinic. The strike took place on the same day the United States and Israel launched coordinated attacks across Iran, which Tehran subsequently responded to with retaliatory strikes on targets in Israel and Gulf countries.
Preliminary findings reported by the New York Times suggested a Tomahawk cruise missile may have struck the school due to a targeting error. President Trump initially suggested Iran could have been responsible, later stating he had not seen footage reportedly showing a US missile hitting a military site near the school. In March, Leavitt addressed the incident in her official capacity, stating that the US does not deliberately target civilians and that the Department of War was investigating the matter.
