A delegation of Arab League officials visits a site to inspect damages to buildings after a car bomb attack in Damascus December 23, (Photo: Reuters).
Lebanon will not send observers to Syria as part of an Arab League mission in order to avoid "negative repercussions" in Lebanon of the Syrian crisis, a government official told AFP on Tuesday.
"Following consultations between President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, the decision was made that Lebanon will not participate in the mission," the official said, requesting anonymity.
He said Sleiman and Mikati had jointly decided not to send 10 Lebanese observers to Syria as part of the Arab League team, a move aimed "dissociating" Lebanon from the crisis in Syria.
"Lebanon does not want to isolate itself from other Arab League members or the international community, but at the same time we are trying to avoid allowing the Syria crisis to have negative repercussions on Lebanon," the official said.
Lebanon's political scene is bitterly divided between a Hezbollah-led majority coalition, which backs embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and dominates the Mikati government, and a Western-backed anti-Assad opposition.
In November, Lebanon voted against suspending Syria's membership in the 22-state Arab League and opposed the group's decision to impose unprecedented sanctions on Damascus.
The Arab League mission kicked off its Syria tour Tuesday in the protest hub of Homs following reports that 34 people had been killed in 24 hours in and around one of the main hubs of nine months of protest.
The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on 2 November that calls for the withdrawal of security forces from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.
Since signing the deal, the Assad regime has been accused of intensifying a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, which have shown no signs of abating since they erupted in mid-March.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have lost their lives.
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