Germany, Kuwait and Belgium have demanded that the UN Security Council vote on a resolution for all groups to "immediately cease hostilities" in Syria's Idlib province, diplomats said Wednesday (September 18th).

The text of the draft, obtained by AFP, would be voted upon on Thursday.

The draft calls for a ceasefire beginning Saturday at noon local time, and says it would help "avoid a further deterioration of the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Idlib".

The resolution faces strong opposition from Moscow, which countered with its own draft text supported by China, which also will be put to the vote Thursday.

Meanwhile, the heads of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) joined Wednesday to appeal for a halt to bombings of the cities of Idlib in Syria and Tripoli in Libya.

Both are "enduring untold suffering and destruction from a hail of bombs and shells", UN chief Antonio Guterres and ICRC head Peter Maurer said in a statement.

They called on all parties in both conflicts to refrain from using wide-impact explosive weapons in populated areas.

"Parties to conflict should recognise that they cannot fight in populated areas in the way they would in open battlefields," they said.

"International humanitarian law... absolutely prohibits directing attacks against civilians or civilian objects, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, indiscriminate weapons, and using civilians as human shields," they said.