BEIRUT — Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah yesterday demanded that the embattled Lebanon government either form a “national unity government” or call early elections.

Nasrallah’s speech comes amid mounting political and sectarian tension in Lebanon in the wake of Hezbollah’s recent 34-day war with Israel.

It follows warnings, including from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that a coup backed by Syria and Iran in Lebanon is imminent. Both countries, which support Nasrallah, deny the claims. He is seen as the force behind destabilising Lebanon’s government.

Nasrallah stressed that his group was prepared not to join the proposed national unity government in order to allow other opposition factions to enter the new government.

“The current government is unable to take decisions on behalf of the Lebanese,” Nasrallah said in his speech.

Lebanon is divided between pro-Syrian factions, to which Hezbollah is aligned, and the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.

The pro-Syrian bloc claims that the shock resignation of six Shiite ministers this month has made the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora untenable, and has threatened to organise demonstrations to bring about the formation of a “unity government”.

“The resignation of the Shiite ministers has made this cabinet and any decision that it takes unconstitutional.”

The comment was aimed at the government’s recent decision to endorse a draft agreement between the United Nations (UN) and the Lebanese government to establish an international tribunal to prosecute the suspected killers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The anti-Syrian camp has refused to agree on a unity government until it receives a pledge that pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud will step down.

The resignations of all Shiite representatives in the cabinet prompted Hezbollah, its Christian ally Michel Aoun and Lahoud to claim that the cabinet had become unconstitutional because it lacked the representation of a major sect in Lebanon.

Lahoud was quoted as saying yesterday: “I promise you (Lebanese people) that we will have a new government soon.”

Nasrallah yesterday called on his people to be “ready psychologically to go to the streets — but not now”. He also urged supporters “to be calm and peaceful no matter what happens”.

Earlier yesterday the country’s Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, reiterated warnings that a coup was in the offing.

Jumblatt called for action, saying the anti-Syrian group in government needed to act swiftly to prevent a takeover.

He said there was still the possibility of a peaceful solution to the country’s political divisions, in order to avert “a new civil war” along the lines of the 1975-1990 conflict.

Should a pro-Syrian government take over in Lebanon, Israel would face the prospect of a hostile neighbour with powerful allies.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to discuss the draft on the tribunal today. After the draft is endorsed by the UN, the text will be sent back to Lebanon, where it will have to be formally approved by parliament.

The anti-Syrian bloc has accused Damascus and its Lebanese allies of complicity in the killing of Hariri, a charge Syria vehemently denies. Hariri was killed with 22 others in a suicide truck bombing in February last year. DPA, Foreign Staff