At least 140 people were killed over the weekend in violence across Syria. The clashes came amidst an international gathering in Geneva that yielded a call for a new transition plan to end the crisis. Russia and China agreed to endorse the proposal after it omitted reference to the exclusion of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from a new Syrian government. Iran, a close ally of Assad, was left out of the meeting at the insistence of the United States.