Press Release
Media Department
Syrian Coalition
May 31, 2017
Within the framework of the reform program proposed by the new leadership of the Syrian Coalition aimed at enhancing legitimacy of the Coalition as an institution representing the Syrian people and defending their revolution and rights, and as part of the steps designed to ensure fair, balanced representation of all military, revolutionary, political, and local forces of the revolution in the Coalition, the Syrian Coalition’s political committee has set up a special committee to consult with the FSA groups with regards to political representation in the Coalition.
The committee has selected 12 FSA groups in accordance with criteria agreed upon and approved by the Coalition’s political committee. Most of the selected FSA groups have already agreed to name representatives in the Coalition, while the committee now waits for the rest to agree. The special committee decided to set up a working group to supervise coordination of efforts between the Coalition and military forces of the revolution.
This important step brought together the political and military wings of the revolution and is expected to ensure strong representation of the FSA groups in the Coalition.
Based on recommendations by the special committee and the legal committee, the Coalition’s political committee has taken a unanimous decision to cancel the membership of the FSA General Staff which represented the now dissolved FSA’s Supreme Military Council.
The Coalition’s political committee thanks the members of the Coalition who represented the military movement over the last period for the efforts they made. It stressed that those members will still be welcome should they name representatives of the 12 FSA groups chosen to be represented in the Coalition.
The reform program put forward by the President of the Syrian Coalition Riad Seif and approved by the political committee includes a series of steps designed to reform the Coalition’s bylaws, ensure strong representation of civil society and political forces and establish joint working groups with local councils, political parties and bodies, the youth, the revolutionary forces, intellectual figures, and the business community. The program is also aimed at ensuring wider participation in the decision-making process, promoting transparency and accountability and acquaint the Syrian public opinion with the course of the political action and the challenges facing it so that the Coalition regains the confidence of the Syrian people in their revolution and political national bodies.
