Syrian crisis: Major powers urged to back nationwide cease-fire

The main Syrian opposition has called on major powers to help clinch a nationwide cease-fire in coming months.

Hadi Al-Bahra, the Syrian opposition co-chair of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, was addressing reporters after week-long UN-sponsored talks in Geneva.

According to AFP, Al-Bahra said that as long as there was no nationwide cease-fire, the political process would remain stalled.

The 45-member committee composed of representatives of the regime, opposition and civil society, has a mandate to draw up a new Constitution leading to UN-supervised elections.

UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen, quoted by AFP, said that there were “many areas of disagreement,” but also “quite a few areas of commonalities.”

“My hope is with continued calm on the ground…we will also see some progress,” he said.

Bahra said troops from the US, Russia, and Turkey as well as Iranian militias are present in Syria.