Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed on Monday that the battle against terrorism and terrorists is open, expressing relief over the measures implemented along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

“Terrorism threatens all the Lebanese without any exception,” Qahwaji pointed out in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday two suspects have been arrested in connection with a January shooting attack on two German diplomats in the east of the kingdom.

The two envoys escaped unharmed when their car came under fire on January 13 in Eastern Province, where most of the country's Shiite Muslim minority lives.

An Arab League summit opens in Kuwait on Tuesday at a time of deepening rifts between its member states and without any end in sight to the Syrian conflict.

With Doha in the eye of the storm, the region's leaders are expected to discuss the row which has pitted Qatar against Gulf partners Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as Egypt.

President Barack Obama opens a six-day trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia on Monday seeking to reassure U.S. allies amid the worst East-West crisis in years and to defend his nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

A visit to the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague -- which grew out of Obama's initiative to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and radioactive material -- has been planned for months.

A previous political adviser to the King of Saudi Arabia has been freed early this month after being abducted from his own house in the northern Metn District of Mount Lebanon and held hostage for one day, the An-Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

In an phone interview to the daily, Ahmed al-Ajaji said: “On March the 9th I was sleeping at my own home in the Beit Misk project and woke up later to find myself somewhere else,” he believes that he was drugged and taken a hostage.

The Pentagon was due to host Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister for talks Thursday as the two sides try to smooth over differences on U.S. policy towards Iran and Syria.

Prince Salman bin Sultan was scheduled to meet Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel as well as Deputy Secretary of State William Burns during a visit to Washington that comes days before President Barack Obama's planned trip to Saudi Arabia, officials said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal has warned there will only be rapprochement between Riyadh and Doha when Qatar "modifies" policies at the center of their spat, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates earlier this month recalled their ambassadors from Qatar after accusing the fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) state of interfering in their internal affairs and of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi authorities have banned hundreds of books, including works by renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, as part of a crackdown on publications deemed threatening to the conservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia clamped down on dissent following the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, from which it has been largely spared, and has adopted an increasingly confrontational stance towards the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups it has long viewed as a threat to its security.

Saudi health authorities said Saturday a young man had died from the MERS coronavirus, bringing the death toll from the respiratory disease in the worst-hit country to 63.

The 19-year-old national, who died in Riyadh, had been suffering from chronic illnesses, the health ministry said.

Saudi Arabia demanded that Qatar shut down Al-Jazeera and two think tanks during a recent meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a source close to someone who attended the talks told AFP Friday.

Riyadh demanded the closure of the pan-Arab broadcaster as well as the Brookings Doha Center and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, the source said on condition of anonymity.