President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani has issued an order to establish a nineteen-member body as the "Sardar Soleimani World Award Policy Council".Sardar means Marshal or Chief Commander in Persian.

The order is based on a resolution by the Islamic Republic's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.

Qassem Soleimani, the Chief Commander of Qods Force, the extraterritorial arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed in a U.S. drone attack on January 3 outside Baghdad international airport.

The biennial series of awards, in commemoration of the fallen IRGC commander, is set to be presented to people in the field of "struggle and resistance". The Islamic Republic refers to its proxy militia in the region as "resistance groups."

The nineteen-member group includes the Islamic Republic's Foreign Minister, the head of the state-run Radio and Television Organization and representatives of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas, the Islamic Jihad movement, and the Yemeni Ansarullah, the Iranian official news agency IRNA reported.

The award was initially approved by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution nearly seven months before Soleimani's death as the "Sacrifice Prize".

However, the council decided later to rename the Prize as "Sardar Soleimani Award", IRNA cited the council's secretary, Saeid Reza Ameli, as saying.

The award will be given at two levels and in proportion to the geographical scope and "effectiveness of self-sacrifice", with the titles of "Sardar Soleimani Supreme Award" and "Sardar Soleimani Award" biannually.

Also, the award is granted in the main category of "struggle and resistance" and six sub-fields of "people and society", "culture and art", "politics", "education and research", "media" and "sports" to qualified candidates according to the decision of specialized committees, local news outlets reported.