VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI announced that the planned Vatican mission to Syria will not go ahead and said that he had dispatched an envoy to Lebanon instead to meet refugees and Christian community leaders.

“Unfortunately different circumstances and developments have not rendered possible this initiative in the way we had hoped. I have therefore given a special mission to Cardinal Robert Sarah,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square.

The Vatican had announced last month that it would send a high-level delegation to Syria including top Vatican officials and peace building experts but it was seen as politically risky and potentially dangerous.

Benedict said that Sarah in Lebanon will meet spiritual leaders and faithful from Christian churches present in Syria, hold a coordination meeting of Catholic charities and meet with refugees who have fled Syria. Sarah’s mission to Lebanon began on Wednesday and will last until Saturday.