President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC), Salem al-Meslet and his accompanying delegation met with the leadership of the National Liberation Front (NLF) as well as political, civil and union bodies in rural Aleppo on Thursday.
The meeting brought together Secretary of the SOC’s political committee, Abdel Majid Barakat, members of the political committee Abdel Basset Abdel Latif and Yahya Maktabi, Munther Serras, and members of the General Assembly Firas Al-Masri, Faisal Sultan, Najib Rahmoun, Atef Zureik, Asaad Alito and Mohamed Yassin.
Al-Meslet spoke about the reforms that the SOC has recently put in place, pointing out that more reforms are underway as he stressed the importance of consulting with everyone, especially our people in the liberated areas.
Al-Meslet stressed that reforms need to be real and cover all institutions of the revolution so as they help renew the revolution’s blood. He said: “We are keen on ensuring real and effective representation. We are proud of the representation of the Syrian National Army in the SOC, along with the unions and syndicates.”
Al-Meslet indicated that the goal of the SOC’s visits is to establish a real partnership with our people in the liberated areas. He said that there will be representation of the Syrian communities in the diaspora in view of their important influence in the political process.
Abdel Latif stressed that reform is an ongoing process, and that the SOC is facing two challenges: the next steps after the reform process, and the alternative to the components and members whose membership has been terminated.
He pointed out that the SOC’s by-law was written when the SOC was established in 2012. After ten years the by-law was subject to amendment, he said, adding a committee has been studying amendments to it for more than three months. He also pointed out that the SOC initially had 25 components, compared to only 12 now. He said some components were removed due to their ineffectiveness or because they do not exist on the ground, therefore they were replaced with active components on the ground.
For his part, NLF’s Commander Marwan Al-Nahas welcomed the SOC’s reforms, pointing out that these reforms are an elementary step that requires further steps. He said that the SOC is an umbrella organization of the Syrian revolution that represents all components of the Syrian people.
Deputy Head of the Free Bar Association in Syria, Jassem Al-Ali, spoke about the role of the Bar in society, pointing out that there are a number of central and subsidiary bar associations in the liberated areas.
Al-Ali stressed the need for representation for the Syrian communities in the diaspora, in addition to a real representation of all the revolutionary forces in Syria, including the groupings and political parties.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
