BEIRUT: Lebanese lawmakers and public figures voiced mixed reactions Thursday to their country’s disassociation with the U.N. Security Council statement condemning the violence in Syria.

Whereas members of the country’s opposition said Lebanon had failed to reflect the country’s anger at Damascus and its sympathies with Syrian protesters, March 8 coalition members said Beirut had taken the right decision of not interfering with its Arab neighbor.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized Lebanon's decision at the U.N, saying: "We as Lebanese are not proud of Lebanon's decision at the Security Council."

"How is it in Lebanon's interest when it dissociates itself from voting?" the LF leader asked.

Speaking to a local radio station, Geagea said that he did not believe a vote at the U.N. would have fallen "within the framework of interfering in Syria's affairs."

Lebanon disassociated itself Wednesday from a Security Council statement which condemned the crackdown on Syrian protesters.

MP Mohammad Hajjar, a member of the Future Movement, said: “the opposition had hoped that Lebanon would come out with a position that expresses the desires and aspirations of the majority of both the Lebanese and Syrian peoples as well as Syrian people’s right to reject violence, oppression and injustice in order to live in dignity, freedom and democracy,” Future Movement

“The March 14 alliance will issue an official stance on the Lebanese government’s position toward Syria’s bloody tyranny,” Hajjar told a local radio station.

Hajjar said the March 14 coalition, led by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, would issue a response to the stance by Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet on the events in Syria.

Hariri, who has made only a few public appearances since his government collapsed in January, condemned last week what he described as a “massacre” in the Syrian city of Hama and urged Arabs to break their silence on events in Syria.

Opposition and human rights groups say over 1,600 civilians have been killed in a deadly crackdown launched by President Bashar Assad in March when protests began. Damascus blames “terrorist gangs” for the civilian deaths and says the unrest in his country is part of a conspiracy.

MP Nabil de Freij, also a member in Hariri’s Future parliamentary bloc, said Lebanon’s position was not unexpected.

“Lebanon’s stance was expected since the Lebanese government is one-sided and close to Syria,” de Freij said.

However, de Freij expressed his belief that the Cabinet’s stance “will not ignite problems with the opposition [March 14]” and ruled out it would have any negative impact on Lebanon’s relations with the international community.

Rival lawmakers in the Hezbollah-led March 8 camp expressed different views, stressing the need not to interfere in the affairs of Lebanon's neighbor Syria.

MP Michel Musa, a member in Speaker Nabih Berri’s parliamentary bloc, said: “Lebanon has no interest in antagonizing Syria and, therefore, there is no interest in taking a position in the Security Council to condemn Syria given the brotherly ties as well as political, security and economic agreements.”

Musa stressed “the need for Lebanon to distance itself from any internal conflict in Syria.”

For his part, Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi, a member of MP Gen Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, said that world countries acted in terms of their interests and that disputes between Damascus and Beirut would not serve the interests of Lebanon.

“Our interest is in having best ties with Syria and we must not interfere in its [internal] affairs,” Qortbawi added.

Lebanese representative Caroline Ziade told the Security Council the presidential council statement “does not help in addressing the current situation in Syria.”

Statements are meant to be unanimous, meaning Lebanon could have blocked it, but by simply disassociating itself, Lebanon allowed the statement to pass.

Mount Lebanon Mufti Mohammad Jouzou also slammed Cabinet’s “negative position by not voting against the repression in Syria” in the Security Council.

“Lebanon does not dare vote because Lebanon itself has been a victim of this repression for 36 years –since the era of Syrian tutelage,” Jouzou said in a statement published Thursday.