Iranian Citizenship of Dual Nationals to be Revoked

The spokesperson of the National Security Commission of parliament called the acceptance of dual citizenship practically “criminal.” Hossein Naghavi Hosseini said that the Iranian citizenship of such individuals will be revoked and they do not have the right to own immovable property.

Iran’s judiciary news agency reported the revocation of Iranian citizenship from dual nationals. Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, spokesperson of the National Security Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, said in an interview with Mizan that this action is “in accordance with civil law” and dual nationals who accept the citizenship of another country are “essentially single nationals” and “do not even have the right to own immovable property.”

He called for comprehensive legislation regarding citizenship and said that the main obstacle to action against dual nationals is a “legal vacuum.” He clarified: “We must define all concepts through this, clarify their boundaries, and specify their prohibitions and limitations so that the status of individuals becomes clear.”

Naghavi Hosseini identified one of the legal vacuums as “the necessity of conceptual separation between the terms dual citizenship, green card, and right of residence” and emphasized that the boundaries of rights and obligations for each should be determined separately.

The spokesperson of the National Security Commission of parliament added: “When a person cannot own immovable property, they cannot simultaneously have responsibility or be a government employee.”

Naghavi Hosseini said that accepting dual citizenship is “an unacceptable act within countries,” therefore “this action is ‘criminal.'” He said: “The punishment for this group of individuals is deprivation of Iranian citizenship and some other rights including government positions.”

Referring to a report from the Ministry of Intelligence, he continued: “Most dual nationals are among managers and regarding their dual citizenship it has been explicitly stated and their competence has been rejected.”

This is while Mahmoud Alavi, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence, announced some time ago that there are no more dual national managers among the country’s officials.

Conservatives have repeatedly warned about the possibility of “espionage” by dual nationals and called for their dismissal. However, Iran’s Minister of Intelligence warned in this regard that due to political games, one cannot “accuse someone of espionage who, from experts’ perspective, has not committed any espionage.”

He, who is himself among conservatives, considered raising the issue of dual nationals as one of the “scenarios” of opponents of Hassan Rouhani’s government. Alavi said: “The issue of dual nationals is raised in such a way that it seems every person who is a dual national is corrupt, foreign, a traitor, or a spy.”

Some observers, based on Article 41 of the Constitution, do not consider issuing a simultaneous order for all dual nationals permissible. According to Article 41 of the Constitution, Iranian citizenship is the rightful right of every Iranian, and the government cannot strip any Iranian of citizenship except at their own request or if they acquire the citizenship of another country.

However, this article gives the government the authority to accept or reject the renunciation of citizenship if it deems it necessary and if an Iranian citizen requests to renounce their citizenship.

Furthermore, despite the fact that the Islamic Republic has repeatedly stated that it does not recognize dual citizenship, dual nationality has never been considered a crime in Iranian laws.

Source: DW