The US State Department announced on Saturday that it had arrested in the United States the niece and great-niece of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020 by a drone strike ordered by Donald Trump.
“Last night, the niece and great-niece of the General of the Revolutionary Guards Corps Qassem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents following Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s revocation of their permanent resident status,” a State Department spokesman said in a statement.
The niece, identified as Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, is accused by Washington of openly supporting the Islamic Republic. “While living in the United States, she spread Iranian regime propaganda, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the Great Satan, and expressed unwavering support for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, a group designated as a terrorist organization,” the statement said.
The State Department also specified that Marco Rubio revoked the “legal status” of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of Ali Larijani, former head of the Iranian National Security Supreme Council, in early April, after a strike claimed by Israel in mid-March. Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband “are no longer present in the United States and are banned from any future entry” into the American soil.
“The Trump administration will not allow our country to host foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Marco Rubio said.
However, Iranian media have disputed this version, claiming that the two arrested women had no connection to Qassem Soleimani’s family. According to the Fars agency, Zeinab Soleimani, the general’s daughter, stated that “the claim by the US State Department is a lie: the people arrested in the United States have no connection to Hajj Qassem’s family.”
Iranian state television also quoted another daughter of the general, Narjes Soleimani, a member of the Islamic City Council of Tehran, who stated that “to this day, no member of the family or any relative of martyr Soleimani has resided in the United States.”
Qassem Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s strategy in the Middle East, was killed on January 3, 2020, in a US drone strike in Baghdad. He was the commander of the Quds Force, a unit responsible for foreign operations within the Revolutionary Guards.
AFP
