The United States and 18 other countries have started in Jordan what was described as the largest military exercises in the Middle East in 10 years, focusing on "irregular warfare," top officers said on Tuesday.

"Yesterday we began to apply the skills that we have developed over the last weeks in an irregular warfare scenario ... They will last for approximately the coming two weeks," Major General Ken Tovo, head of the U.S. Special Operations Forces, told reporters in Amman.

Security agencies succeeded in the past few days in uncovering a terrorist network with local, Arab, and European links, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Tuesday.

It said that the confessions of one of the detainees led to the arrest of Sunni Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, a development which sparked armed clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend.

Liberal civil society groups in Gulf States called Monday on Saudi and Bahraini leaders to postpone plans to announce a union between them, saying such a step must be preceded by a referendum.

"We urge the Saudi and Bahraini leaderships to review such a step and calculate the reactions of the two peoples," the Gulf Forum for Civil Societies said in a statement signed by its secretary general Anwar al-Rasheed.

Gulf leaders will discuss a proposal for a closer political union among them that could begin with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Bahraini information minister said on Saturday.

"The idea of a Gulf union will be on the agenda of the summit in Riyadh" on Monday, said Samira Rajab.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks on Monday with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, announced his press office in a statement.

The Doha talks focused on the latest regional and international developments, especially the situation in the Arab world.

Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri lashed back at the head of the Syrian mission, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, for accusing Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries of arming the Syrian rebels and being responsible for the Syria-destined weapons shipment recently intercepted by Lebanese army.

“With all the respect I have for my colleague ambassador Ali Abdul Karim, I am surprised by his hasty statements in which he accused (Gulf) countries without any evidence,” the Saudi ambassador said in a statement.

Laimoon, a Dubai-based startup, is an alternative to traditional job boards with a current focus on sales and marketing in UAE and Qatar. Its aim is to match applicants to relevant jobs which in effect will also match employers to relevant applicants.

The company was founded nearly 1 year ago, but the official launch was 6 months ago.

Qatar could invest in a new ancient Roman theme park, Italian media reported Wednesday, a day after the Gulf state's emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani met with local officials in the Eternal City.

"We showed the emir several plans. The one that most caught his attention and which he said he wants his people to work on is the idea of a theme park on ancient Rome" the city's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, was quoted as saying.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Tuesday that no progress has been made to end Syria's deadly 13-month crisis.

"We hope the Syrian government responds" to U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six-point peace plan, Sheikh Hamad told an Arab ministerial meeting in Doha. "We don't see any progress in implementing" it.

A U.N.-Arab League peace plan for Syria has only a three percent chance of working, the emir of Qatar said on a visit to Rome Monday, as a U.N.-backed ceasefire was marred by ongoing violence.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani told a press conference that the chances for success "are no higher than three percent", and that the Syrian people should not be supported through peaceful means but "with arms".