Lebanon Eager to 'Sell' Nationalities to Wealthy Syrians, Iraqis

A handout picture provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati & Nohra shows Lebanon's President Michel Aoun giving a televised speech at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 14, 2022 on the eve of parliamentary elections. (AFP/Handout/Dalati & Nohra)
A handout picture provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati & Nohra shows Lebanon's President Michel Aoun giving a televised speech at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 14, 2022 on the eve of parliamentary elections. (AFP/Handout/Dalati & Nohra)
TT

Lebanon Eager to 'Sell' Nationalities to Wealthy Syrians, Iraqis

A handout picture provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati & Nohra shows Lebanon's President Michel Aoun giving a televised speech at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 14, 2022 on the eve of parliamentary elections. (AFP/Handout/Dalati & Nohra)
A handout picture provided by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati & Nohra shows Lebanon's President Michel Aoun giving a televised speech at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, on May 14, 2022 on the eve of parliamentary elections. (AFP/Handout/Dalati & Nohra)

Information has started to emerge in Lebanon that a new presidential decree was being prepared to naturalize hundreds of people, namely wealthy Iraqis and Syrians.

The naturalization of non-Lebanese has become a common move taken by presidents as their term nears its end. President Michel Aoun's term will end in five months.

Informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that "offers" to receive the nationality have been submitted by wealthy Syrians "in exchange for massive funds for such a privilege."

Offices that are dedicated to naturalization are working tirelessly to draft the presidential decree.

The beneficiaries are likely wealthy Iraqis in Lebanon and Syrians residing abroad, added the sources.

Dozens of wealthy Syrians are keen on obtaining the Lebanese nationality because it would grant them the freedom to act away from sanctions imposed on the Damascus regime, they stressed.

The Lebanese nationality would largely free them from the sanctions and allow them to carry out foreign financial transactions, they explained.

It has become the norm in Lebanon for a president to grant the nationality days before their term ends and for varying interests.

Aoun had kicked off his term by issuing a decree that covered 200 people, mostly Syrians close to the regime and some of whom are on US sanctions lists.

However, sources at the Baabda presidential palace said the new decree "was not Aoun's priority at the moment because his attention is focused on other important issues," notably Lebanon's crippling economic crisis and reforms that would halt the country's collapse.

They acknowledged however, that naturalization requests have indeed been submitted, but they have been filed by people married to Lebanese citizens.

"The president has the constitutional right to naturalize whomever he believes deserves it," stressed the sources. "Every president issues a naturalization decree at the end of his term. This is a constitutional right."

They said that Aoun's predecessor Michel Suleiman had granted the nationality to 7,000 people and former president Elias al-Hrawi granted it to 300,000.

The Interior Ministry is the authorized power to issue a naturalization decree, but it has yet to receive a request.

A source at the ministry said a department at the ministry is concerned with inspecting the names of potential naturalization candidates and the minister is required to sign the decree.

Presidents are selective in issuing the decree in that the nationality is granted as a "reward" to wealthy figures, instead of people who actually deserve it. The decrees are rarely ever properly studied.

Public policy expert Ziad al-Sayegh denied that he had received any information about a naturalization decree.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he hoped that the state would focus its attention on more pressing matters, such as saving the country from collapse.

He added that it was unfortunate that the decrees are issued selectively instead of following constitutional and legal standards.

He hoped the newly elected parliament would exert efforts in proposing that necessary standards be adopted in naturalization decrees and that the law and constitution would be respected.



The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
TT

The US Election by Numbers

Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)
Clark County Election Workers inspect mail-in ballots for the 2024 Election at the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 02 November 2024. (EPA)

Swing states, electoral college votes, candidates up and down the ballot, and millions of potential voters: Here is the US election, broken down by numbers.

- Two -

Several independents ran -- and at least one, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, stumbled into a number of eyebrow-raising headlines.

But in the end, the presidential race comes down to a binary choice, with the two candidates from the major parties -- Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump -- seeking to lead a polarized America.

- Five -

November 5 -- Election Day, traditionally held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

- Seven -

The number of swing states -- those which don't clearly favor one party over the other, meaning they are up for grabs.

Harris and Trump are courting voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, concentrating their campaign efforts there in a push to ensure victory.

In a razor-tight election, just a handful of votes in any of those states could decide the outcome.

- 34 and 435 -

Voters won't just decide the White House occupant on Election Day -- they will also hit refresh on the US Congress.

Thirty-four Senate seats and all 435 spots in the House of Representatives are up for grabs.

In the House, members serve a two-year term. Republicans currently have the majority, and Harris's Democrats will be hoping for a turnaround.

In the Senate, 34 seats out of 100 are available, for a six-year term. Republicans are hoping to overturn the narrow Democratic majority.

- 538 -

Welcome to the Electoral College, the indirect system of universal suffrage that governs presidential elections in the United States.

Each state has a different number of electors -- calculated by adding the number of their elected representatives in the House, which varies according to population, to the number of senators (two per state).

Rural Vermont, for example, has just three electoral votes. Giant California, meanwhile, has 54.

There are 538 electors in total scattered across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To take the White House, a candidate must win 270 votes.

- 774,000 -

The number of poll workers who made sure the 2020 election ran smoothly, according to the Pew Research Center.

There are three types of election staff in the United States.

The majority are poll workers -- recruited to do things like greet voters, help with languages, set up voting equipment, and verify voter IDs and registrations.

Election officials are elected, hired or appointed to carry out more specialized duties such as training poll workers, according to Pew.

Poll watchers are usually appointed by political parties to observe the ballot count -- expected to be particularly contentious this year, thanks to Trump's refusal to agree to unconditionally accept the result.

Many election workers have already spoken to AFP about the pressure and threats they are receiving ahead of the November 5 vote.

- 75 million -

As of November 2, more than 75 million Americans had voted early, according to a University of Florida database.

Most US states permit in-person voting or mail-in voting to allow people to deal with scheduling conflicts or an inability to cast their ballots on election day itself on November 5.

- 244 million -

The number of Americans who will be eligible to vote in 2024, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

How many of those will actually cast their ballot remains to be seen, of course. But the Pew Research Center says that the midterm elections of 2018 and 2022, and the presidential vote of 2020, produced three of the highest turnouts of their kind seen in the United States in decades.

"About two-thirds (66 percent) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election -- the highest rate for any national election since 1900," Pew says on its website.

That translated to nearly 155 million voters, according to the Census Bureau.