Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, provoking outrage among Western and Arab states, Reuters reported. All 13 other members of the UN Security Council voted in favor of the resolution to back an Arab peace plan aimed at stopping the violence in Syria by pushing Assad to cede power to a deputy and transition to a democracy. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the veto a “travesty,” and France’s Alain Juppe said China and Russia “carried a terrible responsibility in the eyes of the world and Syrian people”. Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, called “[Moscow and Beijing’s veto] a new license to kill from these two capitals for Bashar al-Assad and his criminal regime, which just yesterday killed 300 people.”