Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denied that a regional agreement had been reached over ending the deadlock in Lebanon, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday.

He told the daily that a deal between the kingdom and Iran has not been reached, contrary to what has been reported in the media.

Speaker Nabih Berri received on Thursday an official invitation to travel to Saudi Arabia.

He received the invitation after holding talks at his Ain el-Tineh residence with Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri.

Representatives from Syria's fragmented opposition began an unprecedented meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, seeking a united front for potential talks with President Bashar Assad's regime.

While not all groups were invited, the two-day, closed-door gathering marks the first time a broad range of Syrian political and armed opposition factions have come together since the conflict began in 2011.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday executed a convicted Pakistani heroin smuggler and a Saudi murderer, adding to a toll which rights group Amnesty International says is the kingdom's highest in two decades.

The interior ministry said the Pakistani, Khan Iqbal, was put to death in the holy city of Mecca for smuggling a large amount of heroin in his intestines.

Syria's splintered opposition was gathering in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for difficult discussions on forming a united front in potential peace talks with President Bashar Assad.

The Saudi-organized talks, due to start on Wednesday, mark the first time representatives of some of Syria's various political and armed opposition factions come together since the outbreak of the country's conflict in March 2011.

Saudi authorities have agreed to retry a Sri Lankan housemaid sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, her country's deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.

Harsha de Silva told parliament in Colombo the government had secured a fresh trial for the woman after Sri Lankan diplomats visited her in a Saudi jail over the weekend.

The powerful Jaish al-Islam rebel group announced late Monday it will attend a major meeting of Syrian opposition forces in Riyadh this week, the first rebel group to confirm participation.

In an emailed statement, Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) spokesman Islam Alloush said it would send two delegates, Mohammad Alloush and Mohammad Birqdar, to the conference, which is set to begin on Wednesday.

Hundreds of Saudi Shiites rallied in the east of the kingdom on Friday to support activists whose execution they fear could be imminent, a witness said.

It was the second Friday in a row that a mass gathering had been held in solidarity with Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr and other death row detainees.

At a sprawling air base in southern Saudi Arabia, another warplane roars off into the harsh sun carrying a payload of laser- and GPS-guided bombs to drop over Yemen.

Roughly 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Yemeni border, the King Khalid Air Base near the city of Khamis Mushait is at the forefront of the Saudi-led intervention against Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.

The French presidency confirmed Wednesday evening that French President Francois Hollande will meet al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Thursday in Paris.

The Elysee Palace meeting will take place at 10:30 am, the presidency said in a statement.