Geagea tells UN rep.: Go to Iran, the only country blocking presidential election

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag is set to head to Saudi Arabia and Iran with the aim of resolving the presidential stalemate, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday .

According to An Nahar , U.N. Assistant-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmond Mulet and Kaag briefed the Security Council’s five permanent members — the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France – during a closed meeting on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s report on the implementation of resolution 1701.

They all stressed the importance of electing a new head of state for Lebanon as soon as possible to enable the state to deal with the social, economic and security challenges, the report said

France’s Ambassador to the U.N. François Delattre said that the Security Council members expressed readiness to continue their countries’ staunch support to Lebanon to combat the increasing challenges, including the spread of terrorism.

“I look forward to visit Saudi Arabia and Iran soon ” Kaag told An Nahar.

But Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea who was the first to announce his presidential candidacy urged Kaag to skip Saudi Arabia and head directly to Tehran since Iran is the only country blocking the presidential election

The Lebanese parliament failed on March 11 and for the 20th time in a row to elect a president to replace Michel Suleiman whose term ended on May 25.

As in the past sessions the parliament was unable to reach a quorum because the Iranian backed Hezbollah militant group and its ally MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc MPs boycotted the sessions.

Speaker Nabih Berri who is allied with Hezbollah and Aoun postponed to April 2 , 2015 the session of Lebanon’s presidential election after expressing pessimism over ending the crisis in the near term.

Berri , who is closely allied with Iran and Hezbollah earlier told local local newspapers : “Hopes (to elect a president) became a delusion.”

“It’s a shame that the number of sessions reached 20,” the speaker said last Wednesday .