MNA – Intelligence minister has said demonization of those officials with possible dual citizenship would be to deny their potentials to serve the nation.Mr. Mahmoud Alavi told special news program of Iran's IRIB Channel Two on Tuesday night that the uproar raised by specific circles among critics of the government had largely been hollow, since of all their claimed officials allegedly with dual citizenship, only the putative officials have green cards, which according to the definition of individuals with dual citizenships, was officially considered not ‘citizenship’ proper, but a travel document with possibility of residence for 10 years in a foreign country.

“This rule is transparent and helps to refute claims of those who spared no moment to hit the government with any sort of criticism whatsoever; we call all those critics to name individuals with dual citizenships who serves in a government position; in the recent past, a figure and a relative of a famous political figure resigned upon facing the rule that barred dual citizens from serving an official position,” he told the program.

Alavi then provided some details of the dual nationals disclosed in a letter by Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, current Attorney-General; “the letter alleged that 16 such officials had dual citizenships; our delving deep into the matter returned quite unexpected results: that 2 of 16 claimed officials had only green cards; the letter however said that such individuals would be allowed to serve in their positions; a general call for all such individuals suspected for having dual citizenships demanded that either they should abandon work for securing nationality of the country or they should resign from their positions, to which many complied; 5 individual have dual citizenships which have no government positions and work with private sector; an superannuated individual left the country years ago and now he lives in a foreign country,” he detailed.

Minister also criticized the general and blanket manner of demonization of the otherwise highly qualified individuals who loved their nation and country and would best serve their nation; “they love their country equally and should not been condemned for just living outside the country under baseless claims that they have foreign passports; they are of huge potential, scientific and economic, to represent the country as an example in the international community,” he emphasized.

Elsewhere in the program, Alavi turned to general campaign against economic corruptions the subject of much emphasis by the Leader and to which many officials in the ranks and files of the system contributed, albeit in a lip service manner; “quite staggering figures have been uncovered from a general reluctance to prevent popping up of these corruptions on the media; Teachers’ Fund is a true example where a total of $ 2bn had been embezzled. The corruption was discovered for the first time in 2006 where the Intelligence Ministry had been watching the corruption down to 2014 where we stopped the illicit activities in the Fund; a total of $ 216bn had been restored to the Fund, with the remaining on the process of being recovered,” he told the program.