Passports of Iranian travellers entering Lebanon will not being stamped, the Lebanese General Security has announced.
Instead, landing slips will be issued.
The decision has raised eyebrows in the country where Iranian-influence seems to be at an all-time high.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday but stopped short of providing any sort of explanation or reasoning behind the decision.
“The General security decided on stamping landing slips instead of passports, and the role of the Foreign Ministry is limited only to reporting such decision,” the statement read.
Lebanon and Iran waived visa requirements for their respective citizens in 2015 in the wake of the now-defunct Nuclear Agreement, making travelling between both countries easier.
The decision comes on the heels of another controversy in which a controversial decree granted Lebanese citizenship to around 400 people of more than 20 nationalities.
According to Lebanese media, 110 on the list were of Palestinian origin, 100 were Syrian and 19 were stateless.
Lebanese politicians and ordinary citizens were outaged by the move which allegedly included Syrian investors close to the Damascus regime.
Critics have slammed the secrecy surrounding the move and say it adds insult to injury for thousands unable to acquire nationality because they were born to Lebanese mothers and foreign fathers.
Syrian activists have also criticized the Lebanese move, saying the pro-Assad general security has followed the same procedures of the Syrian regime even before the Syrian revolution began in 2011.
In last few months, about 200,000 Iranians, mostly Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), had obtained Syrian passports, well-informed sources told Zaman al-Wasl.
The Department of Immigration and Passports in Damascus has recently issued in April 200,000 passports for Iranians over a confedential order by the Republican Palace and General Maher al-Assad, Bashar's brother, Damascus-based source said.
The Intelligence services have been handling the file of fake citizenship.
Tehran has sent military advisers, volunteer militias and, reportedly, thousands of fighters from its Quds Force, the overseas arm of the IRGC.
It is also believed to have supplied thousands of tonnes of weaponry and munitions to help Bashar al-Assad's forces and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which is fighting on Assad's side, according BBC.
Tehran has faced accusations that it is seeking to establish not just an arc of influence but a logistical land supply line from Iran through to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
More than 119,000 pro-regime forces have been killed, including 62,000 troops, tens of thousands of loyalist militiamen, and 1,556 fighters from Hezbollah, according to an estimate by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies, Gulf News
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