US Claims to Arrest Two Members of Qassem Soleimani's Family
The United States (US) has stated that it has arrested two members of the family of the late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani after their residency permits were revoked. The US State Department said the arrests took place last night.
“Last night, the niece and great-niece of the late Major General of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Qassem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status,” the US State Department statement said, as reported by AFP on Sunday (5/4/2026).
The two family members of the late Soleimani who were arrested are his niece named Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, while the daughter’s name was not mentioned. Both are now in immigration detention.
“Both are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the statement said, without specifying their location.
However, Iranian media quoted two of Soleimani’s daughters saying that they are not relatives.
“The US 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.
The other daughter, Narjes Soleimani, who is a member of the Tehran Islamic City Council, told Iranian state television, “To this day, no family members or relatives of Martyr Soleimani live in the United States.”
Meanwhile, the State Department did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for clarification.
Qassem Soleimani, who led the IRGC’s external operations wing, was killed in a US drone strike while in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, in January 2020—the last year of President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
“As identified by press reports and her own social media comments, Soleimani Afshar is a vocal supporter of the totalitarian and terrorist regime in Iran,” the State Department said.
The department also stated that she had “praised Iran’s new Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei and “condemned America as the ‘Great Satan’.”
In addition, Soleimani Afshar’s husband has also been banned from entering the United States, the statement said. Meanwhile, the daughter and son-in-law of another deceased Iranian official, security chief Ali Larijani, have also had their legal status revoked.
“Both are no longer in the United States and are banned from entering in the future,” the statement said.
Larijani, who was the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, was killed on 17 March in an Israeli attack.
“The Trump administration will not allow our country to be a home to foreign nationals who support the anti-American terrorist regime,” Rubio said in a post on X.