LF Challenges Controversial Citizenship Decree
The Lebanese Forces on Wednesday filed an appeal before the State Shura Council protesting a controversial citizenship decree granting Lebanese nationality to foreigners.
MP George Oqais, heading a delegation of LF MPs, said the appeal aimed at “revoking the decree in whole. It is not meant to only scrap some names,” he emphasized.
“The Lebanese citizenship must not granted as a gift. It must be granted based on law. The Shura Council will have the final word on this,” he told reporters.
The LF stresses that the “decree violates the Constitution's stipulations and the applicable laws.”
The Interior Ministry published the highly controversial decree earlier this month, after politicians and ordinary citizens alike fumed over the secrecy that initially shrouded the move.
The list published on the ministry's website comprised more than 400 names of various nationalities, including a quarter of Syrians and just over a quarter of Palestinians.
Its most notable include one of Iraq's two vice-presidents, Iyad Allawi, who is also British and whose mother was Lebanese, as well as his wife and three children.
From Syria, those on the list include the three sons of Syrian steel and flour mogul Farouq Joud, powerful industrialist Khaldun al-Zoabi and Mazen Mortada, the son of a former Syrian minister.
The decree's critics have slammed the secrecy that surrounded the move and said it adds insult to injury for thousands unable to acquire nationality because they were born to Lebanese mothers and foreign fathers.
Although it was issued on May 11, according to the an Interior Ministry statement, news of the decree's existence only emerged when dozens of names allegedly included in the edict were leaked to the media.
The president's office confirmed the decree's existence, but said it had submitted the names to the General Security agency to verify they all have "the right" to become Lebanese.
That agency, in turn, established a hotline and encouraged citizens to call in any relevant information about named individuals.
Lebanese media has reported the list may include businessmen known to be close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
General Security is currently reviewing the backgrounds of the individuals included in the decree.
Source: Naharnet
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