Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Tuesday backed the nomination of new Iraqi premier Haidar al-Abadi, joining an international chorus of approval for the sidelining of outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Arabi "welcomed Iraqi President Fuad Masum's tasking of Haidar al-Abadi to form a new government," a statement said.

Saudi authorities beheaded a Syrian national on Tuesday after he was convicted of trafficking drugs into the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Saudi authorities beheaded a national on Monday after he was convicted of killing his wife with an axe in front of their daughter, the interior ministry announced.

Mahdi al-Ghabari battered his wife Shaqraa al-Bahri several times on her neck with an axe, killing her "in the presence of their little daughter who witnessed" the crime, said the statement published by the official SPA news agency.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia discussed developments in Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Libya with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, during Sisi's first visit to his regime's powerful ally since winning May elections.

Speaker Nabih Berri rejected any negotiation with the jihadists who took more than 35 soldiers and policemen captive in the northeastern town of Arsal last week.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, Berri said: “Had Prime Minister Tammam Salam asked for my advice, I would have told him to resort to Qatar and Turkey to resolve this issue.”

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Monday that the latest Saudi grant made to boost the performance of security apparatuses in Lebanon will be deposited in the Central Bank after the cabinet approves it.

“We are currently drafting a formula to approve the grant based on the highest degrees of transparency,” Mashnouq said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper.

Saudi Arabia has jailed four of its citizens for up to nearly three years after convicting them of joining or trying to join the conflict in Syria, media reported Sunday.

Two of the men, who were not identified by name, had traveled to Yemen and then Turkey using falsified passports with the intention of joining rebel groups, news website Sabq.org reported. 

Former Premier and head of al-Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri expressed readiness to facilitate the election of a new head of state on the condition that the rival parties exert efforts to resolve the presidential deadlock.

Hariri's visitors said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that the Sunni leader will not suggest the name of any candidate and would rather wait for the decision of Christians in this regard.

A Saudi man who died while showing symptoms similar to Ebola was not infected with the virus, according to initial test results cited by health authorities on Saturday.

The health ministry announced Wednesday that the man had died of a heart attack.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stated that the heads of military agencies are supposed to make a list of their needs in order to determine the manner in which to spend the Saudi Arabian grant to the Lebanese army, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He revealed that his talks with head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri on Friday focused on the mechanism to spend the grant.