The inspiration for the title of this article comes from a novel by Essam Altawiaan, The Deadly Award, published in 2013. The events of the novel revolve around a secret organization, which attempts to discredit the Nobel Prize either by threatening the nominees or by carrying out assassination attempts against them.
Projection of the novel into the realm of certain political events finds a fertile ground in the mullahs’ regime in Iran. Iran has secret organizations that serve its expansionist interests, be it in Iraq through the Badr Corps and Quds Force, organized and trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, in Lebanon where Hezbollah acts as the military wing of Iran, in Yemen through the Houthi militia, or in Syria from various sources, including all of the afore-mentioned groups as well as other Shiite armed groups arriving from various countries to back Assad’s regime.
In addition to this, hundreds of different Arab and non-Arab affiliates work directly in the intelligence cycle to provide Tehran with the required information in all fields. As a complement to the underplot, rather a tragic one, Iran grants a “Nobel Prize,” in the form of citizenship to those mercenaries fighting for the expansionist projects of Iran.
On July 23, 2015, the Iranian press talked about a resolution of amendment to civil law 980 by the Islamic Consultative Assembly of Iran. The law allows the granting of citizenship to foreign fighters and intelligence cooperatives who fight and spy for Tehran’s projects around the world. Particularly those in the inflamed region of the Middle East, or as described by the website according to Al-Arabiya.net: “To non-Iranian fighters and Mujahideen contributing in the path of right and wrong conflict or to elites serving the Islamic Republic.”
The website mentions four categories of beneficiaries: 1) Non-Iranian fighters and Mujahideen, 2) Non-Iranian disabled (those who are disabled in battles for the benefit of Iran), 3) Families of non-Iranian martyrs’ (families of those killed in battles for the benefit of Iran), and 4) non-Iranian elites collaborating with revolutionary agencies (intelligence cooperatives for Iran). With regards to the fourth category, according to Al-Arabiya.net quoting the official Iranian website, it includes “cooperatives of the Revolutionary Guard in both logistic and intelligence fields, even if they have not been to the battlefields.”
If this resolution is passed, authority to grant Iranian nationality will be given to security and military institutions that may assign to the Foreign Ministry to order the Personal Status and Passport Department to issue documents necessary to grant citizenship. Even without this resolution Iran has randomly granted citizenship in this way. For example, Iran granted citizenship to all Iraqis and Lebanese who contributed to bombing of the US Embassy in Kuwait in 1983. Imad Mughniyah was also granted Iranian citizenship after being involved in bombing the marine base in Beirut in 1982, and in hijacking a Kuwaiti airplane in 1988 in exchange for the release of terrorists. In addition, many individuals from among the leaders of Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani Shiite militias who are cooperatives of Quds Force were granted citizenship.
The merits of this resolution cannot be dissociated from recent developments, which resulted in the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in Vienna to settle the Iranian nuclear issue and the new strategy that Iran is trying to pursue. In his speech on Eid Al Fitr on July 18, 2015, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that the nuclear deal with superpowers would neither change Iran’s policy of confronting the “arrogant American government” nor its policy of supporting its “friends” in the region.
On July 21, Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser on international affairs, reiterated the same approach when he said that Iran would increase support to what he referred to as “Mujahideen of the axis of resistance in the region.” He went on to say, “It will not hesitate to support ‘allies’ in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen.” On July 23, Yadollah Javani, adviser to the Supreme Leader and representative of the Revolutionary Guard, also took the same approach. “Iran is an axis of proxy war in the region between America and its allies on the one side and countries and people of axis of resistance on the other side,” he said.
Javani added, “Parties of these wars are the countries and people of Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain, whom Iran stands with and represents against a front led by America, European countries, and Israel. He also said: “Iran’s nuclear deal has nothing to do with Iran’s strategy in the region, and Iran is going to firmly move on its way.”
Thus, Iran is trying, through this draft resolution, to legitimize its behavior and any impending wars in the region. It also wants to legitimize its interference in the internal affairs of the region with the pretext of protecting its interests and nationals, particularly in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
I think the passing of this resolution will pave the way to the same issue being discussed in Assad’s parliament, with a view to adopting the same strategy. It will consequently pave the way for the flow of Shiite militias throughout the Arab and Muslim world for the service of Iran and the Guardian Jurist “Wali Al-Faqeeh,” which will expedite regional confrontation and further plunge the regional system into division and crisis.
