Gunmen fired on the car of a Syrian government minister on Saturday, killing his driver but missing their target, who was not in the vehicle, state television reported.

"National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar escaped an assassination attempt on the Masyaf-Qadmus road, and his driver was killed," the television said in a breaking news alert.

Egypt announced Saturday it was expelling Turkey's ambassador, the latest souring of diplomatic ties that began when the Egyptian army ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi from power in July.

Ankara said it would reciprocate and hours later, it declared Egypt's ambassador "persona non grata" and downgraded diplomatic relations to the level of charge d'affaires.

Syrian rebels, including from the al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, have seized a key eastern oil field, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

"Fighters from Al-Nusra and other groups have taken the Omar oil field in Deir Ezzor province after clashes overnight," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

President Barack Obama praised the "leadership" of Morocco's King Mohammed VI on Friday after holding wide-ranging talks with the North African monarch for the first time at the White House.

In a joint statement released by the United States and Morocco following the talks, Obama applauded the king for "deepening democracy, promoting economic progress and human development" in the past decade.

U.S., Russian and U.N. envoys will meet in Geneva on Monday aiming to pin down a date for an international conference on the Syria conflict, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.

Diplomats say U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon should announce a date after the Geneva talks for a peace conference bringing together government and opposition rebels for the first time.

Jihadists cut down a 150-year-old oak tree in Atme, on Syria's border with Turkey, after they accused locals of worshiping it, a pro-jihadist source said.

"Thank God almighty, the tree... aged more than 150 years has been removed, after people were worshiping it instead of God," said the source on Thursday via his Twitter account named "our call is our jihad."

The U.N.-Arab League's Syria peace envoy held talks Friday with key Damascus ally Iran amid renewed efforts to bring the country's warring sides to the negotiating table.

Veteran mediator Lakhdar Brahimi had a half-hour discussion in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minster Mohammad Jarad Zarif, Brahimi's spokeswoman told Agence France Presse.

The United States said Friday that a plan drawn up by Morocco regarding the autonomy of Western Sahara was "serious, realistic and credible" ahead of a meeting between President Barack Obama and King Mohammed VI.

"Morocco's autonomy plan is serious, realistic and credible," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

An MP who represented Zaidi Shiite rebels known as Huthis at a national dialogue was assassinated on Friday in the Yemeni capital, an official from his group told Agence France Presse.

"Two armed men opened fire on MP Abdel Karim Jadban as he was leaving a Sanaa mosque," said Abdel Karim al-Khaywani from the Ansarullah (Partisans of God) group.

Thousands of Shiites in Bahrain took to the streets south of the capital Manama on Friday to protest against what they called repression of the opposition, witnesses said.

They marched in the Shiite area of Bilad al-Qadim, waving the flag of the Gulf state and chanting slogans calling for jailed members of the opposition to be released.