UK Parliament members call for stripping Assad’s wife Asma of UK citizenship

Asma Assad reportedly holds dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and Syria. (Photo: Asma al Assad – Syria’s First Lady/ Facebook)

MOSCOW–The UK Parliament members urged the Home Office to strip Syrian President Bashar Assad’s London-born wife Asma of her UK citizenship for being part of Syria’s “propaganda machine,” local media reported Sunday.

According to The Sunday Times newspaper, the request to Home Office was sent on Saturday night.

“The time has come where we go after [President] Assad in every which way, including people like Mrs. Assad, who is very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes,” Nadhim Zahawi, a conservative parliament member, who sits in the House of Commons’ foreign affairs committee was quoted as saying.

Asma Assad reportedly holds dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and Syria.

The proposal was triggered by Asma Assad’s recent posts in social media, such as Instagram, Facebook and Telegram, after over 80 people had been reportedly killed in the Syrian province of Idlib last week as a result of an incident involving chemical weapons. She blamed the West, who accused Damascus of carrying out a chemical attack, for spreading misinformation on the issue.

The Syrian government refuted the allegations about its involvement in the incident in Idlib, saying that it would never attack the civilians and claiming that Damascus has no such weapons since 2014.