Abou Faour Criticizes Decree Granting Lebanese Nationality to Foreigners
Democratic Gathering bloc MP Wael Abou Faour criticized on Saturday a decree reportedly signed by President Michel Aoun granting Lebanese citizenship to foreigners and Syrian businessmen.
“Anyone who sells citizenship can not be entrusted to run a nation,” Abou Faour said in a statement.
The controversial decree reportedly gives citizenship to some 300 people mostly including names of Syrian, Palestinian, Western and Gulf businessmen, as well as a number of stateless applicants.
“What will be left of national claims when the Lebanese nationality has been put out for sale by non-eligible financiers,” he said.
He criticised the contradiction between the decree and a Lebanese law that bans Lebanese women married to foreigners from passing their nationality to their children.
“Who will protect the rights of deserving sons of fathers and Lebanese mothers who suffer before Lebanon’s courts and departments to prove their right to nationality?” said the MP in his statement.
The controversial decree is expected to provoke criticism, especially since it will be issued by a caretaker government.
Reports raised the possibility that the decree could be challenged in front of the Constitutional Council.
Source: Naharnet
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