SAEDNEWS: According to The Guardian, the U.S. State Department has revoked the green cards of three Iranian citizens, including the child of a figure involved in the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover, as part of renewed pressure amid ongoing tensions.
According to the economic service of Saed News Agency, citing The Guardian, U.S. federal agents have arrested three Iranian nationals, including the son of a revolutionary figure linked to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, after the U.S. State Department revoked their green cards. The announcement was made on Saturday.
Officials at the State Department revoked the lawful permanent residency status of Seyed Issa Hashemi, whose mother was an Iranian revolutionary who served as a spokesperson for the Iranian regime during the hostage crisis that deeply affected the late U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s administration. The State Department also revoked the green card status of Hashemi’s wife and child.
In a statement, the State Department controversially referred to Hashemi’s mother as the “screaming Mary” and claimed she was “notorious for her role as the main propagandist of the violent Islamists who orchestrated the Iran hostage crisis.”
According to the department, Hashemi entered the United States on a visa in 2014 and later obtained lawful permanent residency in 2016 through the Diversity Visa Program. The department noted that the Trump administration has since ended this visa program.
The State Department stated: “The Trump administration will never allow the United States to become a home for foreign nationals linked to anti-American terrorist regimes.”
These arrests come amid a series of similar green card revocations targeting individuals the State Department alleges are linked to the current or former Iranian government, which the United States and Israel have reportedly been in conflict with since late February.
According to The Guardian, federal agents also arrested Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, the niece of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani—who was killed by the United States in 2020—and her daughter in early April. U.S. officials accused Soleimani Afshar of openly supporting Iran and celebrating military attacks against American forces, while claiming she lived a “luxurious lifestyle” in Los Angeles. The Soleimani family has rejected these claims, calling them false and stating that none of Qassem Soleimani’s relatives reside in the United States.
The U.S. State Department has also recently revoked the green card status of Fatemeh Ardshir Larijani, the daughter of former Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, as well as her husband.
