Bin Dagher: The National Bloc is a comprehensive alliance experience, and we call on those who hesitated to join it to fill their vacant seats.

On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Shura Council and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the National Political Bloc of Political Components and Parties, Dr. Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher, called on the political parties that hesitated to join the National Bloc to "fill their vacant seats," in reference to the Southern Transitional Council.

Today, in the interim capital, Aden, the National Bloc of Political Parties and Components was announced, which includes 21 political parties and components, representing the forces supporting Yemeni legitimacy, while the Southern Transitional Council refused to join it.

In his speech during the launch ceremony, Bin Dagher said, "The Presidential Leadership Council is our existing legitimacy, which we seek shelter under in our struggle to restore the state. It is the heir to all republican legitimacies and is the last of them if our efforts fail to empower and preserve it."

He added, "Today, a comprehensive alliance experience is being launched. We wanted it to be comprehensive, and God willing, it will be so. It is not, in the general context, disconnected from what came before it. Today, we are developing our alliance experience that arose in the midst of the battle with the Houthis. We have pledged to ourselves to delve into the difficult aspects of our reality and move our programs from one component to another with a broader horizon and a genuine desire for cooperation and joint work, far from the spirit of fanaticism or jumping into a reality in which we are threatened by dangers and pitfalls."

He continued: "Our alliance today is broader in base and more open, and seven political components have joined it, all of which have a significant political and social presence. They represented the difference in the path of the anti-coup alliances."

Bin Dagher pointed out that the establishment of this broad national political alliance is an important step that prepares for political discussions and aims to strengthen strategies based on national consensus and reach a Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue that leads to a comprehensive and just solution that ends the coup, restores the state, and establishes a new era.

He expressed his hope that everyone would join this broad national framework open to every political component that sees confronting the Houthi coup and rejecting the Imamate in its modern, deceptive and misleading form as a national duty.

He said: "I call on those who hesitated to join this national bloc to take their seats in it, as these are vacant seats and positions that no one else can fill, and we must all, leaders and components, continue the dialogue with them. There are common denominators that we see as suitable for dialogue between us and them, as we all adhere to the republican system with its broad national horizon of deep value and meaning."

He added, "Today we begin a new phase in our fraternal relations, whose title is tolerance and reconciliation, and whose aim is to preserve the republican system, within the framework of a federal state, that achieves justice, and meets the aspirations of the governorates in the context of a comprehensive development vision and optimal use of resources and capabilities. We agree that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Yemen are common denominators in the context of our struggle to restore the state."

He continued: The principles and values that have united us for years on the battlefield, unified our ranks, and built our political and media discourse on are still valid. Confronting the Houthi rebellion is the first field mission in the battle for liberation and freedom, as their continued rule over our people in the areas they occupy poses a grave and imminent danger to our present and future. Our resistance to the Houthi coup is a duty that is not preceded by any other duty, a mission that no other mission can match, and an honor that is unparalleled in our present.

Bin Dagher stressed that the success and continuity of this political bloc depends on our ability to restore the spirit of brotherhood that has been tampered with over the years. Restoring the state and the republican system cannot be achieved without making a double effort to address the southern issue, as a major issue and another key to addressing other national issues. This will require, according to the bloc’s program, which includes ancient southern components and well-known national symbols, setting a special framework for it in the context of searching for a final solution.

He also stressed that the federal state represents a correction to an extended history of struggle over power and wealth, in which the balance was tilted towards the strongest, even if it was wrong, which is something that federal systems prevent. The central state, despite the dazzling slogans, was unable to absorb and contain the sharp social contradictions in society, resulting from accumulated grievances.

He pointed out that this bloc will support the legitimacy represented by the Presidential Leadership Council and its president, so that our joint efforts become a strong tributary to every political and economic rescue effort. In this regard, we urgently need unity of leadership, unity of national decision, and the return of cohesion to our civil and military institutions, whose multiplicity constitutes a negative factor and a reason for delaying the resolution of the liberation battle.

He said, "Our new political bloc will continue to strengthen our Arab alliances and international friendships in order to confront the discourse of power, arrogance, and the desire for expansion and domination, which is against the interests, security, and stability of the nation. Yemen represents its southern gateway."

He added, "We will need to maximize our material and moral capabilities in the battle of steadfastness to confront the challenges and dangers that are forming around it as long as the Houthis reject peace and the neutralization of weapons. We will strengthen the principle of self-reliance, based on our people and our collective national will first, and on the support and advocacy of our brothers, and the support of the international community for our common cause second. We will certainly need a common vision with our neighbors, as we are not an isolated island from what is around us."

Bin Dagher explained that this Yemeni political component will provide a national platform and ground for negotiations and dialogues to reach a lasting and just peace based on its national, regional and international references. Peace was, is and will remain for us in the legitimate state institutions and its political components a goal and an aim, and often true peace is only made by the brave who love their country and their people.

He continued: “We realize from experience, practice, and a history of conflict with the Imams that preparing for peace means at the same time preparing for something else if the facts of reality dictate otherwise, or if the Houthi enemy continues its tyranny, carrying out behaviors that are contrary to the interests of the nation and the people, in submission to the desires of its masters in Tehran. Unfortunately, the Houthis are exposing our country’s capabilities to destruction. They are risking its independence, sovereignty, wealth, and social unity, some of whose bonds they have torn apart.”

Bin Dagher pledged to maintain "our firm and supportive positions for the Palestinian people and their right to return, self-determination, and the establishment of their independent state on the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital. This was and will remain our central issue until peace prevails and aggression stops. Palestine has a special place in the hearts of Yemenis, as it does for all Arabs. We see the two-state solution as an effective treatment for the region's intractable crises."