MNA – Some 50,000 children of Iranian mothers and foreign fathers in the eastern province of Khorasan Razavi are eligible to receive Iranian citizenship, a senior official said.

“Upon the ratification of the bill that allows children born to Iranian women and foreign men to obtain Iranian nationality, some 50,000 children in Khorasan Razavi province will be granted the citizenship,” The head of Khorasan Razavi's Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Immigrants Affairs (BAFIA) Mohammad Taghi Hashemi said on Monday.

According to the official, there are about 800,000 children from the marriages of Iranian women with non-Iranian men across the country who will enjoy the new law.

Earlier in October, the Guardian Council – Iran's legislative vetting body -- ratified a bill that allows children born to Iranian women and foreign men to obtain Iranian nationality.

The approval was announced by the Council’s spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaie on Wednesday. The bill, passed by the Iranian parliament in May, was welcomed by international organizations such as the Human Rights Watch.

In Iran, nationality is passed down from father to child and not from the mother.

The Guardian Council in June had rejected the proposed legislation on security grounds, requiring changes that would allow background checks on foreign fathers.

On July 15, the parliament amended the bill to condition granting citizenship to children who have been found to not "possess a security problem".