Syria rejected the Arab League's decision Sunday to open contacts with the Syrian opposition and send a joint peacekeeping mission to the chaotic Middle East country, Syria's ambassador to Cairo said.

The Arab League on Feb. 12, 2012, called for the formation of a joint UN-AL peacekeeping force for Syria to replace the AL's observation mission.?[Xinhua photo]

"The Syrian Arab Republic categorically rejects the decisions of the Arab League," said Yusef Ahmed after the League made these propositions at a meeting in Cairo Sunday.

According to the ambassador's statement, he said the decisions reflected the hysteria of the League's member countries after they failed to secure the UN Security Council's intervention in Syria's affairs.

At the Cairo meeting, the 22-member bloc's diplomats announced the bloc had formally ended its observer mission to Syria, which was suspended last month.

Next to opening channels of communication with the Syrian opposition and offering support to it, the bloc's members also decided to "ask the UN Security Council to issue a decision on the formation of a joint UN-Arab peacekeeping force to oversee the implementation of a ceasefire."

The Syrian ambassador, who did not attend the meeting, said the West planned to "redistribute the cards in the region, in order to impose a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, resulting in the loss of (Arab) rights and land."