Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah terrorists get Syrian citizenship, claims stu

Cairo: The Assad government in Syria, endorsing the Iranian military and Hezbollah terrorist deployment in the country has started awarding citizenship to the Iranian soldiers and Hezbollah supporters. A leading study group in the Gulf has made this claim. The study group has said that this will make thousands of soldiers of Iran, Hezbollah and the affiliated groups, the citizens of Syria which proves to be a matter of concern for Israel. Israel had already claimed the presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria to be a major threat to Israel’s security. The Assad opponents are pointing out that this systematic action would change Syria’s demography converting it to a country with the Shiite majority.

Since the last few months, news and reports about the activities of the Assad government are being published in the Arab-Gulf media. Assad government is accused of attempting to bring about major changes in Syria under the pretext of the conflict. Ten days ago, a Syrian, as well as Saudi website, posted a letter written by the Syrian secret service to the Internal Security Ministry. In this letter, President Bashar al-Assad had instructed the ministry to grant citizenship to all the Iranians in Syria.

The website has criticised that the Assad government is issuing an official permit to Iran, Hezbollah and the affiliated groups to have their bases in Syria. It is claimed that it is not the only letter and hundreds of such orders have been published and implemented by the Assad government. It is said that all the Iranians and people connected with Hezbollah, in capital Damascus, as well as in Rif Dimashq, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor have been awarded citizenship.

At the same time, as per the information en on the website, 200,000 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been given Syrian passports by orders from President Assad. The Passport and Immigration department of the Syrian government executed this action in April this year. The Syrian website has claimed that these include Afghani and Pakistani mercenaries fighting for the Iranian military. Following this, the soldiers of the Iranian Quds Force, Hezbollah soldiers and their families have also been awarded official Syrian identity cards.

The estimated number of Iranian and Lebanese citizens in Syria is said to be nearly 400,000. Of which, the possible number of Hezbollah terrorists is predicted to be approximately 50,000. Therefore, the website and the study group have expressed concerns over the Assad government awarding citizenship to the Iranian and Hezbollah soldiers on such a large scale and in turn permitting their deployment in Syria. This will make the Iranian and Hezbollah deployment near the Golan hills border, official. Israel will never accept this. Therefore, there are signs of a major conflict sparking in the Golan Hills region.

Meanwhile, the opponents of Assad had accused that under cover of the Syrian conflict ongoing for over six years the Assad government is driving the Sunni Muslims out of the country and is trying to settle in Shiites from Iran and Lebanon.