Maronite Bishops Warn over Citizenship Decrees

The Council of Maronite Bishops warned Wednesday over the “negative repercussions” of citizenship decrees, noting that some people of Lebanese descent are more eligible to obtain citizenship than others.

“The fathers discussed the citizenship decrees that have been issued since 1994 until today and their breach of the law and negative repercussions on coexistence. Accordingly, they stress that citizenship is closely linked to the country's identity, dignity, sovereignty and higher interests, and the officials should not take it lightly under any excuse,” the bishops said in a statement issued after their monthly meeting in Bkirki.

The meeting was chaired by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“There are people of Lebanese descent in the diaspora, including personalities who have established their presence at the global level and in various fields, and they are more eligible than others to get citizenship,” the Council added.

The Interior Ministry has recently revealed the names of hundreds of people including an Iraqi vice-president to receive Lebanese nationality under a controversial presidential decree.

The interior ministry published the list after reports of the May 11 decree emerged and the names of wealthy Syrians close to the Damascus regime were leaked to the media.

Critics slammed the secrecy of the decree in a country where thousands of people born to Lebanese mothers but foreign fathers remain unable to acquire citizenship.

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.

Foreigners can only be naturalized by presidential decree, signed by the prime minister and interior minister.

Naturalisation is controversial in the tiny Mediterranean state, where power is shared according to religious parity.

Fears of upsetting that fragile demographic balance are often cited as the reason Lebanese women cannot pass their nationality onto children born to foreign fathers.