Hezbollah Urges Protests Against Gov't

Visitors to the Sweet Land amusement park watch Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah deliver a speech made on Saturday but aired Sunday on Hezbollah's TV station Al-Manar, in the park's cafe in the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006. Nasrallah urged his followers to be "psychologically" ready to take to the streets in mass demonstrations to support the militant group's demand for a national unity government but warned that the protests should be peaceful and avoid riots. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) (Ben Curtis - AP)

Lebanon's political crisis has deepened since late October when Nasrallah began threatening mass protests unless Hezbollah's demand for a national unity government was met.

Saniora, backed by the anti-Syrian coalition, has vowed to stay in power and refused to give veto power to Hezbollah and its allies.

Nasrallah repeated his demand for the unity government to include Christian leader Gen. Michel Aoun's faction, a Hezbollah ally, as a way out of the current political deadlock. The move would also reduce the sectarian appearance of the exclusively Shiite group's bid for greater political power.

"We have two options to break the political deadlock: formation of a national unity government in which the country's major political forces participate in an effective way, or early parliamentary elections," he said.

But Nasrallah insisted he was not trying to cause radical change.

"Come let's form a national unity government. ... Nobody is raising arms, nobody is making a coup or popular revolution," he said.

The demonstrations are not aimed at changing the ruling system or causing a "radical political coup" in Lebanon, he said. "All we want is to have a national government that will not make Lebanon an American or an Israeli tool."

Nasrallah ruled out civil war, undermining Lebanon's stability or Sunni-Shiite strife, all of which he said were "red lines" Hezbollah would not cross.

Washington has accused Hezbollah backers Iran and Syria of seeking to topple the Saniora government and attempting to block the formation of an international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Both Iran and Syria have denied the charges.

The Lebanese government last week approved the draft agreement for the tribunal's formation, and the U.N. Security Council was expected to discuss the draft on Monday. Lebanon's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud opposed the Cabinet's decision, saying it lacked legitimacy after the ministers resigned.

Hariri was killed with 22 others in a suicide truck bombing in February 2005. The assassination sparked huge protests against Syria, which was widely seen as culpable. Syria denies it was behind the killing.