BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Khaled Daher has called on the Lebanese government and Arab League to recognize the nascent Syrian National Council, and urged that Syria be suspended from top Arab body.

In an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Anbaa published Tuesday, Daher said a decisive position should be taken by the Arab League on “the regime of [President Bashar] Assad which is drenched in the blood of [members] of the isolated opposition that it is spilling on a daily basis.”

The Syrian National Council, formed earlier this year, has been welcomed by Western countries including the United States and France. However, unlike the Libyan transitional council, Western governments have not offered the SNC any formal recognition.

In Cairo Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers urged Syria’s rulers and opposition to negotiate and decided to create a committee to work for a halt to the bloodshed. They stopped short of adopting a proposal to suspend Syria from the pan-Arab group.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour reiterated Monday that Beirut would side with Damascus.

“Lebanon will always side with the brothers and we say with honesty that we will help Syria to end its crisis and achieve stability because what harms Syria harms us,” Mansour said at Rafik Hariri International Airport Monday upon his return from the Egyptian capital.

The U.N. says a crackdown by Assad against protesters calling for reforms and his ouster has killed 3,000 people, mostly citizens, since March. Syrian authorities deny they are targeting civilians and blame the deaths on “armed gangs.”