Hezbollah have been a key ally of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime during the war [Getty-file photo]
The interim Syrian government revealed on Thursday that it could soon begin procedures to revoke citizenship granted to foreign fighters brought into prop up Bashar Al-Assad’s regime with as many as 740,000 people affected by the law.Â
Director General of Civil Affairs in Syria, Abdullah Abdullah, said that the revocation of citizenships will apply to all foreign nationals who were granted Syrian citizenship by Assad in exchange for fighting for his regime during the nearly 14-year-long civil war. This will include individuals from other Arab countries.
It comes after clashes on the Syria-Lebanon border involving Hezbollah-linked clans who were given Syrian land by the previous regime.
Abdullah told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the Assad officials destroyed the country’s civil affairs information network and that the process of revoking the citizenships will begin once this network is fully rebuilt.
The decision will only target those who obtained citizenship for political or military reasons, and not individuals who obtained nationality via marriage to Syrians and other civil means, he added.
There is no known number of pro-Assad fighters naturalised during the war due to the damage to the civil registry systems, but the process to revoke the citizenships will involve a comprehensive review of the files.
Many of the foreign fighters who were granted Syrian citizenship fled the country after Assad’s fall last December, most heading to Iraq.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011, Iran imported thousands of fighters from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Lebanon to prop up the Assad regime, under the supervision of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
It is widely viewed that without the support of these foreign fighters, the Assad regime would have collapsed earlier in the war.
Research reports have confirmed that Assad granted Syrian citizenship to a large portion of these fighters, with estimates ranging between 120,000 and 740,000, to placate Iran.
Abdullah also revealed that in 2023, Assad attempted to eliminate the “Khaneh Number” from civil records – a figure that reflects the family origin of Syrians and helps determine lineage and family relationships.
He explained that the goal behind this move was to conceal the large-scale naturalisation of foreign fighters by the regime.
