British MPs want Assad wife's UK citizenship revoked

LONDON: British MPs today wrote to Home Secretary Amber Rudd, seeking revocation of the citizenship of Asma al-Assad, the UK-born wife of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, for her support to his regime on social media.

"The first lady of Syria has acted not as a private citizen but as a spokesperson for the Syrian presidency... [UK foreign secretary] Boris Johnson has urged other countries to do more about Syria, but the British government could say to Asma Assad, either stop using your position to defend barbaric acts, or be stripped of your citizenship," Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, Tom Brake said.

Brake is leading a group of his party MPs calling on Rudd to use her powers to withdraw Asma Assad's citizenship for her support to Assad's regime on social media.

"This is a barbarous regime, yet Asma Assad has continued to use her international profile to defend it, even after the chemical weapons atrocity," he said.

Conservative party MP Nadhim Zahawi backed the call, saying she was "very much part of the propaganda machine that is committing war crimes".

After a US strike, Asma Assad posted a message on one of her accounts saying: "The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a shortsightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign."

The 41-year-old was educated in Britain and worked as an investment banker before she married in 2000. Withdrawing her passport would not leave her stateless, however, because she is thought to be a dual British-Syrian national.

Social media accounts in Asma Assad's name have some 500,000 followers and are used as pro-regime tools.