# Syrian opposition coalition says it will dissolve after a national conference

Event date: 2024-12-18

The Syrian Opposition Coalition says it will dissolve once a national conference is convened, according to North Press Agency, in a statement that points toward a reshaping of the country’s opposition architecture during the transition period.

Coalition president Hadi al-Bahra said the bloc would disband after a national conference elects a constituent assembly representing the whole Syrian people. That assembly, he said, would then form a constitutional process. The message is clear: the coalition sees its own role as temporary and tied to the creation of a broader political framework.

Al-Bahra also said the transitional government must be credible, inclusive and not built on sectarian lines. That condition matters because Syria’s postwar political future will depend heavily on whether new institutions can claim legitimacy across the country’s fragmented communities.

According to the report, coalition representatives have not held meetings with Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the military operations administration, but they have communicated with the interim government and related entities. That suggests indirect contacts are under way even if formal negotiations remain limited.

The idea of dissolution may sound like a procedural detail, but it carries real political weight. A coalition created to represent opposition forces abroad or in exile often gains relevance during periods when no single authority can speak for the entire country. If such a body chooses to dissolve itself, it implies that its leaders believe a new structure is about to take shape.

The report does not say how widely this view is shared across the opposition. But al-Bahra’s remarks indicate that at least some leaders think the coalition has reached the end of its purpose, provided that a national conference can actually produce an inclusive assembly.

That caveat is important. The coalition’s dissolution is contingent, not automatic. It depends on a national conference being convened and on the political process proving broad enough to replace the coalition with something more representative.

For Syrians, the deeper question is whether any constitutional process can avoid repeating the exclusions of the past. Al-Bahra’s insistence on inclusivity and non-sectarianism shows that opposition leaders are aware of the risks of creating another narrow arrangement that fails to command trust.

North Press reported the comments from Damascus, where the immediate politics of the transitional period are still evolving. Even so, the coalition’s statement signals an openness to handing over to a larger political mechanism if one can be established.

In practical terms, that means the opposition is preparing for another phase of Syrian politics, one in which the structures built during conflict may give way to a new and hopefully broader order. Whether that happens will depend on the national conference al-Bahra described, and on whether it can deliver more than another temporary arrangement.