United Nations sanctions monitors have said photographs taken inside Iraq appear to confirm that the head of Iran’s elite military Quds Force, has been in the country in violation of a U.N. travel ban.
Qassem Soleimani, commander of the terrorist Quds Force of the Iranian Regime’s Revolutionary Guards, has been subject to an international travel ban and asset freeze by the U.N. Security Council since 2007.
A seven-page report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on Iran, seen by Reuters on Monday, said Soleimani “has been photographed and videoed on a number of occasions, allegedly in Iraq.”
“One photograph reportedly shows him near the city of Amerli in northern Iraq after Iraqi forces re-took the city from ISIL (an acronym often used for Islamic State),” it said. The report included a photo purporting to be of Soleimani in Iraq.
The Iranian regime’s terrorist Quds force is the main body funding, arming and training the proxy groups in countries of the region including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
U.S. designated Soleimani’s Quds Force as a supporter of terrorism in 2007. The European Union did the same in 2011.
U.N. member states are required to deny entry to blacklisted individuals. Diplomats at Iraq’s U.N. mission did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
