LF, PSP, Kataeb Urge Aoun to Annul Controversial Citizenship Decree

The Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Kataeb Party on Friday issued a joint statement urging President Michel Aoun to invalidate a controversial decree granting Lebanese citizenship to dozens of Arabs and foreigners.

“After the authorities heeded our request on publishing the citizenship decree, and after the Interior Ministry confirmed that preliminary investigations have unveiled the presence of security and judicial suspicions over several names included in the citizenship decree, the Kataeb Party, the LF and the PSP call on the President to annul this decree,” the statement said.

The three parties added that Aoun should issue “another decree that would only include very particular cases for very specific humanitarian reasons that comply with the Lebanese Constitution's stipulations.”

The Interior Ministry published the highly controversial decree on Thursday, after politicians and ordinary citizens alike fumed over the secrecy that 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 Interior Ministry's statement, news of the decree's existence only emerged last week 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.