UN agrees to new Syria plan

Foreign ministers, including China and Russia, agreed Saturday (30 June) in Geneva to a new United Nations peace plan that calls upon the immediate cessation of violence in Syria and for “clear and irreversible steps” towards a transitional government.

The internationally-backed UN plan made no specific reference to the stepping down of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. The new transitional government, notes the UN document, would instead include by “mutual consent” members of the pres...