The niece and grand-niece of the deceased commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen Qasem Soleimani, have been arrested, the US state department has said.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter’s lawful US permanent resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a statement released on Saturday said.
However, Soleimani’s daughter has called the state department’s claims false, saying the arrested individuals “have no connection whatsoever” to her father.
Soleimani, who was Iran’s most powerful military commander, was killed in 2020 in a US air strike in Iraq which was ordered by then US President Donald Trump.
In a post on social media, Rubio said the two women were in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pending removal from the country.
He added in the statement on X that Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were “green card holders living lavishly in the United States”.
After entering the US on a tourist visa in 2015, Soleimani Afshar was granted asylum in 2019 and became a green card holder in 2021, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
In filing for a naturalisation application in 2025, she revealed that she had visited Iran four times since receiving her green card, according to the DHS.
“Her trips to Iran illustrate her asylum claims were fraudulent,” the DHS said.
The DHS added that Soleimani Afshar’s daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, came to the US in 2015 on a student visa and was later granted asylum in 2019 and a green card in 2023.
The state department said Soleimani Afshar was an “outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran” and had promoted “Iranian regime propaganda” on her social media account.
Soleimani Afshar’s husband has also been barred from the US, the statement said. The state department did not name Soleimani Afshar’s husband.
In a statement, Narjes Soleimani, Soleimani’s daughter, said: “The individuals arrested in the US have no connection whatsoever to Martyr Soleimani and the claims made by the US State Department are false.”
She added that the US had “become so weak and insignificant” and was “fabricating lies against a great figure”.
The BBC contacted the state department for further comment, but it said it had “nothing to add”.
Soleimani spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East as head of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
The 62-year-old was killed at Baghdad airport, along with other Iran-backed militia figures.
