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Hard-liners lack evidence for dual nationality charges against Rouhani officials

For years, hard-liners have claimed a large number of Rouhani administration officials held dual nationality, but a recently released parliamentary report on the matter provided no evidence to back this up.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani arrives for his swearing-in ceremony for a further term, at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, August 5, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. - RC1E6A273D30

Iran’s hard-liners have long claimed that a large number of Rouhani administration officials possess dual citizenship or a US green card, and in late July, a prominent opposition member of parliament finally released a list of 71 such alleged dual nationals. However, the list was quickly dismissed by the administration as lacking evidence; this in turn raised the question of how major a seback the opposition had suffered by not backing up its claims.  

Iranian hard-liners initially raised the issue of dual citizenship among Rouhani officials about four years ago during Iran’s ninth parliament. However, the dimensions of this claim were never clarified until Iran’s 10th parliament assigned an Investigation and Probe Committee comprised of 11 opposition legislators to investigate the issue. The report prepared by this committee was presented to parliament's presiding board and was read in parliament in August 2018; the report also was forwarded to the judiciary. While the report read aloud in parliament indicated that there were 13 to 17 individuals in the administration who had dual citizenship, a second, unreleased part of the report apparently contained a list that indicated that at least 210 individuals in the administration, some in high-level positions, held dual citizenship or US green cards; even Rouhani was accused of having dual British nationality.

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