Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief has held a new meeting in Russia with President Vladimir Putin on the Syrian conflict, the second closed-door encounter this year between the Russian leader and the key regional powerbroker.

The Kremlin said in a statement late Tuesday that Prince Bandar bin Sultan discussed with Putin at the president's suburban Moscow residence the situation in the Middle East and preparations for a Syria peace conference planned in January.

President Michel Suleiman slammed on Wednesday the criticism directed against Saudi Arabia by some officials in Lebanon, rejecting meddling in the affairs of other countries.

He said: “We should not ruin Lebanon's relations with Saudi Arabia by making baseless accusations against it.”

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's accusation that militants linked to Riyadh were behind the deadly attack on the Iranian embassy last month drew a sharp retort from al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri.

Nasrallah  told OTV in an interview on Tuesday that militants with links to the Saudi intelligence were involved in the double suicide bombings that targeted the Iranian Embassy in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, on a tour of Gulf states, will visit the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, he wrote on his Facebook page.

"Following the visit last week of the UAE's foreign minister to Tehran, tomorrow I will go to the Emirates and will have meetings with the high-ranking officials ... in Dubai and Abu Dhabi," Zarif said in his Tuesday post.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appealed Monday to Saudi Arabia to work together with his government toward achieving regional "stability", as he pressed a tour seeking rapprochement with Gulf Arab states.

Zarif arrived in Doha after first stopping over in Kuwait and Oman for meetings with top officials aimed at giving assurance that a deal Tehran secured with world powers on its nuclear program is in their interest.

Human Rights Watch on Sunday urged Saudi authorities to launch a probe into violence that accompanied a crackdown launched last month against illegal migrant workers.

It also warned of a "humanitarian disaster" if the workers remain held in deportation centers across the Gulf kingdom.

More than 11,000 Sudanese workers have returned voluntarily from Saudi Arabia after an amnesty for foreign employees to legalize their status, official media said on Saturday.

"The number of Sudanese that have voluntarily returned from Saudi Arabia has reached 11,678 as the amnesty for people working in the country without proper permits expired on November 4", the state SUNA news agency reported, quoting Khalid Fath al-Rahman, deputy head of Sudan's embassy in Riyadh.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to discuss about fears that next year's presidential elections were under threat, saying he would deal with the issue when the Constitutional deadline approaches.

In remarks carried by al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Saturday, Berri said that “he would discuss about the elections before March 25, when the 60-day Constitutional deadline for the election of a new president starts.”

The grand mufti of Saudi Arabia said a ban on women driving in the conservative Gulf state protects society from "evil", in remarks published in the press on Thursday.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, in a speech delivered Wednesday in the western city of Medina, said the issue of giving women the right to drive should not be "one of society's major concerns".

U.S. President Barack Obama called Saudi king Abdullah late Wednesday to discuss latest developments in the Middle East, a report said, days after world powers struck a nuclear deal with Iran.

The landmark accord, which would curb parts of Iran's nuclear program in return for some relief from international sanctions, has received only a cautious welcome from Riyadh, which fears Tehran's regional ambitions.