Lithuania plans sending two army officers to Syria

"Following consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President's Office, the Ministry of National Defense decided to propose to contribute to this mission by sending two army officers," Ugnė Naujokaitytė, spokeswoman for the minister of national defense, said in a statement sent to BNS.

Lithuania and other countries have received invitations to join the mission, but the fact that Vilnius agrees to send two army officers does not mean Lithuanian troops will take part in the mission.

"Other countries have rather actively nominated candidates for the mission. Candidates have to go through the UN selection. Besides, the security situation in Syria is changing fast, therefore, the UN might decide to suspend the mission," Naujokaitytė said.

She added that sending officers to Syria did not require approval of Minister of National Defense Rasa Juknevičienė or the Parliament as it was only an observer mission.

Currently, 276 military observers are taking part in the UNSMIS mission, and up to 300 unarmed observers can be sent to Syria on the UN mandate.

According to reports, over 11,000 people have already been killed in Syria since March 2011 when civil protests against President Bashar al Assad's regime broke out. Western countries have imposed strict sanctions against the Syrian regime, while Russia and China, having veto powers in the UN Security Council, have been fairly reserved. In an effort to avoid a large-scale civil war in Syria, a peace plan drafted by Kofi Anna, the U.N.-Arab League peace envoy to Syria, is being implemented. But these attempts have so far been unsuccessful.