Special report: Israel-Lebanon conflicts [Gallery] [Videos]

Israel, Lebanon agree on ceasefire

    BEIRUT, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Hezbollah and pro-Syrian allies have mobilized for mass street protests to topple incumbent government led by Prime Minister Fouad Seniora, the Naharnet news website reported on Tuesday.

    Former parliament member Abdul Rahim Mrad, a pro-Syrian, was quoted as saying that Hezbollah and allied factions have set the date and venue for street protests, but refused to elaborate.

    "We are going to witness street protests in the very near future," Mrad said on Monday after a meeting of a coalition of opposition groups, including Hezbollah and General Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement.

    "There has to be street protests ... in hopes of convincing the ruling majority the need for the government's resignation to pave the way for a national unity government," Mrad said.

    Political crisis blew up in full force in Lebanon following the resignation of six pro-Syrian ministers, two from Hezbollah, after all-party roundtable talks collapsed earlier this month.

    The crisis took a sharp turn for the worse after the cabinet, without the Syrian-backed ministers, approved on Nov. 13 a UN draft document for the creation of an international tribunal on the case of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's killing.

    The opposition parties dismissed the cabinet's move and called for its resignation, while the anti-Syrian ruling parliamentary majority accuses Hezbollah and Amal, the main pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian Shiite groups, of doing Damascus' and Tehran's bidding and seeking to undermine the formation of the tribunal.