Lebanese An-Nahar newspaper reported that the Assad regime has naturalized about two million Shiites from Iran and Lebanon with the aim of preventing millions of displaced persons and refugees from returning home.
The newspaper on Wednesday said that this move is designed to serve the policy of “demographic change that is underway in full swing or by the controversial Law No. 10.”
The newspaper considered that “the Iranian settlement in Syria today represents the gravest threat to the region,” describing the issue of naturalization as “extremely dangerous.”
“Bashar al-Assad has given about two million ID cards to Iranians and members of the militias belonging to the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and their families, especially the Hezbollah militias,” the paper quoted diplomats as saying.
The issue was not limited to the granting of identity cards to those militias, but rather to facilitate their resentment in the areas that were emptied of their indigenous population such as eastern Ghouta, Damascus suburbs, Homs, Hama and Aleppo.
A large number of officials of the Iranian regime have recently obtained Syrian ID cards to dodge the US sanctions imposed, according to the newspaper. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
