Head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun denied on Monday that the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime will not lead to the deterioration of relations with Iran and Hizbullah.

“The relations with Iran and Hizbullah after the toppling of Assad will be normal and not strategic as they are right now,” Ghalioun told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Syrian helicopters on Sunday hovered over the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal before returning to the Syrian airspace, Future News TV reported.

For its part, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Syrian military aircraft flew over Syria’s border with Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. It did not elaborate.

The Arab League must bring the U.N. into the effort to stop Syria's bloody crackdown on protesters, the top opposition leader said Sunday, as security forces pressed ahead with raids and arrests around the country.

Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based leader of the Syrian National Council, made the plea as Arab League officials were setting up observer teams, part of their plan to end nine months of turmoil that has killed more than 5,000 people, according to the U.N.

In his traditional Christmas message on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and said he hoped this year's Arab revolts would aid the "common good."

"Let us turn our gaze anew to the grotto of Bethlehem. The Child whom we contemplate is our salvation! He has brought to the world a universal message of reconciliation and peace," he told thousands of pilgrims in the Vatican.

President Michel Suleiman stated on Sunday that a parliamentary electoral law should cater to all insecurities in Lebanon and provide equality between its people.

He said after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi at Bkirki: “The Maronite meeting laid the basis for discussions on the electoral law that unite all sects and respect the Taif Accord.”

The opposition Syrian National Council appealed Sunday for the Arab League to immediately send observers to the besieged city of Homs and other hotspots of a bloody crackdown on dissent, as activists said security forces killed 10 civilians across the country.

The call came a day before a first group of Arab League observers is set to arrive in Syria to begin monitoring a deal the 22-member bloc agreed with the government in Damascus aimed at ending nine months of violence.

Sources from the Mustaqbal Movement warned against undermining the Syrian accusations against Lebanon that al-Qaida members arriving in Syria from Lebanon were behind the twin Damascus explosions on Friday, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah on Sunday.

They warned that these allegations may be a precursor for Lebanese and Syrian powers to create unrest in the Bekaa town of Arsal and other Lebanese towns that are harboring Syrian refugees.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed that Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn had informed cabinet that al-Qaida members had infiltrated the Bekaa town of Arsal.

He told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat however that the minister only spoke of information he obtained and not of reports that al-Qaida members had been arrested, especially since the border region are controlled by the Lebanese army.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour announced on Saturday that Lebanon will not participate in the Arab observer mission intended to oversee an end to nine months of bloodshed in Syria, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

He explained that the decision was reached by President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati, “who deemed Lebanon’s participation as unnecessary.”

At least 25 people were killed on Saturday several Syrian cities where the protests against President Bashar Assad's regime erupted in March, a rights group said.

Local Coordination Committees said that Syrian security forces shot dead 25 civilians in Homs, Daraa, Aleppo, Reef Damascus, and Idlib.