BEIRUT: MP Neamatallah Abi Nasr and President Michel Sleiman Tuesday praised Cabinet’s decision to approve a draft law that would allow Lebanese expatriates to apply for Lebanese citizenship.

"This matter is of great importance and is vital for Lebanon," Sleiman's press office quoted him as saying. He urged Parliament to pass the law swiftly to strengthen the bonds of expatriates with their homeland, politically and economic.

“Receiving Lebanese nationality for descendants of Lebanese origins is a national right, because the descendant is taking his fathers' and grandfathers' nationality,” Change and Reform bloc MP Abi Nasr said in a statement.

The Cabinet Monday approved a draft law, presented by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, allowing Lebanese expatriates who were born abroad and only have the citizenship of the country of their birth to apply for Lebanese citizenship as well.

Under the current law, expatriates can only receive citizenship from their father. The new law would allow them to receive dual citizenship if they have a Lebanese grandfather. Under Lebanese law, women cannot pass on citizenship.

Abi Nasr proposed a similar law in 2004 that was not approved in Parliament.

The latest draft law would help Lebanese expatriates take part in future Lebanese parliamentary elections via Lebanese embassies abroad.

The draft will now be discussed in Parliament and must be ratified by MPs to be passed into law.

“We should involve expatriates with the political, social and economic life in Lebanon though facilitating their right to recover their nationality,” Abi Nasr said.

The MP, who has always been vocal regarding the rights of expatriates to vote and gain citizenship, also said that approval of this draft law would encourage expatriates to invest in their country's economic sector.

A draft electoral law proposed by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel was also discussed during Monday’s Cabinet session, although no agreements on details were reached.

Lawmakers and activists have also urged the Foreign Ministry to facilitate the voting process for expatriates for the upcoming parliamentary elections, accusing the ministry of not encouraging people to be part of the electoral process.

“Every [male] Lebanese named in the census survey of 1921 and 1924 or who lost his citizenship under the 1932 general census can [now] claim citizenship for him and his children,” Abi Nasr said.