BEIRUT: Syria’s Western-backed opposition, the National Coalition, elected Hadi Al-Bahra, chief negotiator at the Geneva peace talks, as its new president on Wednesday after a three-day meeting in Istanbul.

The US and other key powers have designated the Coalition as the main body representing the opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but it has little power inside Syria where disparate militant groups outside its control hold ground.

Bahra, a US-trained industrial engineer, is unlikely to have any impact on the situation in Syria or within opposition ranks for now, though France, the first Western nation to back the Coalition, welcomed his appointment and said it was still striving for a political resolution of the conflict. Bahra, born in 1959 in Damascus, has worked as a businessman in Saudi Arabia.

While welcoming Bahra’s election, the French foreign ministry said Paris would not change its stance of providing civilian and non-lethal military aid. The rebels say they need heavy weaponry to change the balance on the ground in Syria.

“We will continue to provide support to help (the Coalition) fight oppression and terrorism,” spokesman Romain Nadal said in a daily online briefing.

“This aid aims to help the moderate opposition protect the population against attacks by the regime and terrorists and provide basic public services in liberated zones.”