TEHRAN: Iran has passed a law allowing the government to grant citizenship to the families of foreigners killed while fighting for the Islamic republic, the official IRNA news agency reported Monday.

“Members of the parliament authorised the government to grant Iranian citizenship to the wife, children and parents of foreign martyrs who died on a mission... during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and afterwards,” it said.

Citizenship must be awarded “within a maximum period of one year after the request”, IRNA added.

Iran’s outgoing conservative-dominated parliament will serve until late May.

The law could apply to “volunteers” from Afghanistan and Pakistan who are fighting in Syria and Iraq against jihadists including the Islamic State group and Al-Nusra Front.—AFP