Speaker Nabih Berri intends to call for a parliamentary session this month, a move that requires consultations with the rival blocs over the vacuum at Baabda Palace.

Al-Liwaa daily on Tuesday quoted Berri as telling his visitors that he is seeking to call for a session by the end of March.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea described the presidential deadlock as a “misery,” laying blame on Hizbullah-backer Iran and saying no solution was currently lying on the horizon .

“More than any other time Iran does not want a president for Lebanon unless he belonged to its camp,” Geagea told journalists who visited him in Maarab on Tuesday.

Lebanese Forces official Melhem Riachi stressed on Friday that it's normal for talks with the Free Patriotic Movement, which aim at preparing for a wider meeting between FPM chief MP Michel Aoun and LF leader Samir Geagea, to take a long time.

“A page from the past will be folded and we will not go back there,” Riachi said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam met Monday with al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri as part of his endeavor to find a solution to the crisis crippling the work of his cabinet.

Media outlets said Hariri did not make any statement after leaving the Grand Serail meeting.

The members of the committee tasked with following up on the dialogue between Bkirki and Hizbullah met for the first time since Hizbullah politburo Hajj Mahmoud Qmati assumed the tasks of his predecessor Ghaleb Abou Zaynab.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, the committee's meeting, which was held on Wednesday night at the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki, aims at activating the dialogue between Bkirki and Hizbullah.

Chairman of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Friday that Tehran was keen on Lebanon's stability and stressed it was up to the Lebanese rival factions to resolve the presidential impasse.

“The latest political developments in the region help consolidate stability in Lebanon,” said Boroujerdi following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has regretted that the government's work has been paralyzed since the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's term in May last year, saying his patience is not a sign that things are on the right track.

Salam told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that his cabinet “temporarily” began exercising the president’s prerogatives until the election of a new head of state.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has said that the election of a new president requires the development of dialogue among the rival Christian parties.

The Lebanese should resolve the presidential deadlock by finding what they have in common, the diplomat told As Safir daily in remarks published on Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the closure of the notorious block B of Roumieh prison east of Beirut was the result of the dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal that started last month.

“The operation at Roumieh prison came as a repercussion to the dialogue ... which proved that the state exists,” Berri told his visitors.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed on Friday some journalists and TV stations without naming them for reports and shows that “contradict moral values” and said Lebanon's presidential crisis is linked to Sunni-Shiite discord.

“Some writings and TV shows are violating sanctity and resorting to deception and lies for money-making purposes,” said al-Rahi.