U.S. says it arrested relatives of slain Iran general Soleimani

WASHINGTON - Two family members of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani have been arrested in the United States after their residency permits were rescinded, the U.S. State Department said Saturday.

“Last night, the niece and grand niece of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qassem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents following Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s termination of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status,” a department statement said.

It identified the niece as Hamideh Soleimani Afshar. Her daughter was not named.

Both “are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the statement said, without specifying their whereabouts.

But Iranian media quoted two daughters of Soleimani as saying the pair are not relatives.

“The U.S. State Department’s claim is a lie: the people arrested in the United States have no connection to the family,” Zeinab Soleimani told the Fars news agency.

Another daughter, Narjes Soleimani, who is a member of Tehran’s Islamic City Council, told Iranian state TV: “To this day, no member of the family nor any relative of Martyr Soleimani has resided in the United States.”

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarification from AFP.

Qassem Soleimani, who led the IRGC’s foreign operations arm, was killed in a U.S. drone strike while he was in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020 -- the final year of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.

“As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the State Department said.

It also said she had “praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei and “denounced America as the ‘Great Satan.’”

Soleimani Afshar’s husband has also been barred from entering the United States, the statement said.

The daughter and son-in-law of another slain Iranian official, security chief Ali Larijani, have also had their legal status terminated.

Both “are no longer in the United States and are barred from future entry,” the statement said.

Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was killed on March 17 in an Israeli strike.

“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Rubio said in a post on X.