The Daily Star BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri will issue a statement before May 6 condemning Iran for “kidnapping” Lebanese Citizen Nizar Zakka, Zakka’s brother said in a statement Saturday. The statement said Hariri had told thousands of supporters of his intent to do so at an election rally during a visit to northern Lebanon Friday. Lebanon’s first parliamentary elections in nine years are set to be held on May 6. Hariri would make the “long-awaited condemnation of Iran for its aggressive actions against Lebanon by taking a Lebanese citizen hostage while he was on an official visit,” the statement said. Zakka was arrested after traveling to Iran to attend a state-sponsored conference in Tehran in 2015. At the time of his arrest, he was the secretary-general of IJMA3, an Arab communications organization, and had received an official invitation to visit. His family has been lobbying the government to raise the subject with Iran and criticized ministers for not doing enough to secure Zakka’s release. The Zakka family, as well as the mayor of his hometown of Qalamoun, met with Hariri Monday in Beirut, where they told the premier of Zakka’s “very bad health” in one of Iran’s most notorious prisons. It was not clear from the family’s letter what health problems Zakka has been suffering from, although his attorney previously told the U.S.-based NGO Center for Human Rights in Iran that he may have colon cancer. Hariri took the opportunity to raise the issue of Zakka’s detention during a brief handshake with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Wednesday at the Brussels conference on Syria, though details of what was said are unknown.