The Syrian Opposition National Salvation Front, comprising exiled figures, will hold its second general conference on Sunday and Monday in Germany, as announced by the front’s media coordinator on Friday to the French Press Agency. Abaida Nahhas explained that the front will convene in the German capital for an expanded conference that reflects its growth since its founding a year and a half ago, with around 140 opposing Syrian figures participating. He added that the general conference, the second after the founding conference held in London in June 2006, “will elect the ‘National Salvation Council,’ which is expected to have about 30 members. The council will, in turn, elect the new General Secretariat for the coming year, which serves as the executive leadership of the front.” The current General Secretariat emerged from the previous general founding conference, consisting of 11 opposing figures, notably including former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, the General Observer of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, and the Syrian Kurdish leader Salah Badreddine. Nahhas indicated that the general conference “will make important decisions on the level of political action both domestically and internationally, aimed at bringing about the establishment of a democratic civil republic in Syria.”
