The Vice President of the National Progressive Front, Major General Mohamed al-Shaer, stressed the need to activate the front’s work in the coming stage, in response to the challenges Syria is enduring. He said that there was no objection to new licensed parties joining the front, but the conditions and criteria were currently being studied.
In the first meeting of the National Front’s central leadership with the leaders and staff of the Front’s parties in Aleppo, in the attendance of the Secretary-General of the Arab Socialist Union Party, Safwan Qidassi; and the Secretary-General of the Socialist Unionist Party, Adnan Ismail; Shaer said that the front had gone through a period of weakness since it was established in 1980 until now, but that it had an active role in joint political action with the Baath Party. It had produced leaders on political, economic and social levels, and had strengthened and defended national unity, and had taken part in all the battles and political events in Syria, and that, “its role must be active and ongoing and bolstered in every stage—especially in this war.”
Shaer added: “When we began the stage of recovery after the liberation of Aleppo, our role began to require more activity. You in Aleppo have a leadership role with regards to what Aleppo and its children, institutions and facilities offered in restoring and giving victory to the nation. You, as parties, participated in this despite the periods of weakness in terms of performance which the Front went through, and strengthened the principle of political pluralism, national unity, and entrenching the concept of the army, the people and leadership, working to eliminate terrorism and to liberate every inch of Syria at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army. The Front must return to dynamism and activism to overcome the negative consequences of the war and break away from sluggish behavior.”
Shaer said that the Front’s parties, “were not opposition and not loyalists. They are opposition in some places and loyalists in others. The national ceiling is what governs them in accordance with the law.”
The Vice President of the National Progressive Front responded to questions from the audience, and said that there had been an amendment to some items of the Front’s charter recently, and developments of aspects of their work, which allowed new licensed parties to join, as part of the Front’s working conditions and specifications and principles that these parties need to fulfill, which are currently being studied, in the event that these parties want to join the Front.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
