Us arrests qassem soleimani's niece, grandniece over alleged iranian ties
US federal agents have arrested the niece and grandniece of the late Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani after the Trump administration's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, revoked their lawful permanent resident status, officials said on Saturday.
Mother and daughter face 'pending removal' from the us
In his own statement on social media, Rubio, the US secretary of state, confirmed that the mother-daughter pair are 'pending removal' from the US, a development that came after the US and Israeli militaries began waging war on Iran in late February, in part citing an Iranian history of terrorism sponsorship.
Saturday's development with respect to Soleimani Afshar also came as the Trump administration has sought to revoke the legal immigration statuses of people it has determined to be aligned with enemies of the US. Rubio's statement said that the Trump administration 'will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes'.Officials allege that Soleimani Afshar celebrated military strikes against American personnel and praised Iran's new supreme leader after the US and Israel killed her predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a large-scale air attack at the beginning of the war. They also accused her of labeling the US the 'Great Satan'. The statement about Soleimani Afshar further claims she voiced 'unflinching support' for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – all while maintaining a 'lavish' lifestyle in Los Angeles, with US officials pointing at her Instagram account as evidence.
Alongside the revocation of legal permanent resident – or green card – status for Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, her husband has also been formally prohibited from entering the US, officials said. The maneuvers announced on Saturday followed a separate recent move by Rubio to terminate the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani – daughter of Ali Larijani, the former secretary of Iran's supreme national security council – and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Both Ardeshir-Larijani and Motamedi have since departed the US and are under a permanent entry ban, according to the state department.