U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman says the commander of Iran’s elite overseas Quds force is among a number of individuals and companies who will be delisted by the United Nations as part of a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Sherman said in Washington on July 16 that Qasem Soleimani, who heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' (IRGC) elite Quds unit, will remain on the U.S. sanctions list because of counterterrorism sanctions.
“He is on the UN designation’s list at phase two, which is some years away. He would in fact, if everybody complies, comes off the UN list,” Sherman said at a press briefing.
Soleimani was sanctioned by the United States in 2011 over the Qods forces' alleged role in a plot to kill a Saudi ambassador in Washington.
He was blacklisted by the UN years earlier for his role in Iran's nuclear program.
If the deal goes according to the plan, UN sanctions imposed on Soleimani, including a travel ban and freeze of potential foreign assets, will be removed.
A State Department official was quoted by news agencies as saying that Soleimani will not receive sanctions relief for another eight years.
Under the nuclear agreement reached in Vienna on July 14, Iran will receive sanctions relief after complying with the terms of the agreement that put curbs on its nuclear program.