Saudi Arabia was braced for possible protests Saturday after women activists declared an "open driving campaign" against the deeply conservative kingdom's ban on women behind the wheel.

Activists had originally planned a "drive-in" Saturday but cancelled it after threats of legal action, instead declaring an open-ended campaign in the only country that forbids women from driving.

The U.N. urged Saudi Arabia to crack down on discrimination against women among other rights abuses on Friday as the country braces for a weekend campaign that should see female activists defy a driving ban.

The U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a report listing 225 recommendations for improvements earlier this week in Geneva during a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the oil-rich kingdom's rights record.

Activists pressing to end Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving have dropped plans for a "drive-in" Saturday after threats of legal action and have opted instead for an open-ended campaign.

"Out of caution and respect for the interior ministry's warnings... we are asking women not to drive tomorrow and to change the initiative from an October 26 campaign to an open driving campaign," activist Najla al-Hariri told Agence France Presse Friday.

Caretaker State Minister for Administrative Development Mohammed Fneish, a Hizbullah member, on Thursday hit back at former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal, describing his remarks as “very dangerous.”

“This speech is very dangerous and it cannot go unnoticed and it is a threat against Hizbullah and Lebanon,” said Fneish when asked by the Central News Agency about al-Faisal's remarks.

Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal has warned that “Lebanon is on the brink of civil war as Hizbullah continues to implement its own agenda without giving any consideration to law and order.”

The party “is willing to risk the foundations on which the entire Lebanese political system was built in order to prevent the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and impede the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon that is probing the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri,” al-Faisal said in a lecture he delivered at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations in Washington.

Saudi female activists are gearing up to test a long-standing driving ban, with more defiant women already getting behind the wheel as the authorities seem to be taking a more lenient approach.

Under the slogan "women's driving is a choice," they have called on social networks for a turn-out on Saturday in a campaign in the world's only country that bans women from driving.

Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia remain strong, a U.S. official insisted Tuesday, brushing aside a report its key Gulf ally was seeking to distance itself from Washington amid differences over Syria.

Asked if Riyadh had told Washington that it planned to cut back cooperation, the official replied: "Not to my knowledge has that message been sent to the State Department by the Saudis."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Monday that the country would have had more influence by taking a seat on the U.N. Security Council.

A senior State Department official said Kerry discussed the issue of Saudi Arabia's shock rejection of a U.N. Security Council seat with Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal during talks in Paris.

Saudi Arabia came under fire again Monday over human rights abuses, including the death penalty and discrimination against women, days after refusing a seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Diplomats at a U.N. review of Saudi Arabia's human rights record condemned the oil-rich kingdom's failure to abolish a system requiring women to seek permission from male relatives to do basic things such as leave the country, and also criticized a continued ban on driving for women.

Amnesty International on Monday said Saudi Arabia had failed to act on U.N. recommendations and "ratcheted up the repression" since 2009, with the arbitrary detention and torture of activists.

The London-based watchdog's statement was released ahead of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva on Monday to discuss the oil-rich kingdom's record, and comes after Riyadh rejected a seat on the U.N. Security Council, citing the international body's "double standards" and inability to resolve regional conflicts.