Qatar called Sunday at an Arab League ministerial meeting for a rethink of an Arab offer of normal ties with Israel in return for its pullout from occupied land and branded the international Quartet a failure.

"It is logical after 10 years to objectively reconsider the peace process, including the Arab initiative," said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, the country's prime minister.

Romania's ambassador to Syria has left Damascus to relocate in Beirut due to security concerns, the Romanian Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

"The security situation in Syria is significantly deteriorating, including in central Damascus, which has led to a reduction of Romania's diplomatic activities," the ministry said.

Egyptian F-16 fighter jets made low passes over the center of Cairo on Sunday in a rare maneuver by the air force over the capital amid high political tension, AFP correspondents reported.

The military was not immediately available for comment.

Leaders of the rival Palestinian movements Hamas and Fatah on Sunday called for fresh attempts to cement a reconciliation process that has been stalled for more than a year.

In Gaza, the exiled head of the Hamas movement Khaled Meshaal, in his first ever trip to the coastal territory, said it was time for the bitter opponents to make good on the deal they signed in Cairo in 2011.

Syrian rebels on Sunday seized control of a sector of Sheikh Suleiman base west of Aleppo, bringing them closer to holding a large swathe of territory extending to the Turkish border in the north.

The rebels took control of Regiment 111 and three other company posts located inside the base after fierce fighting overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Kuwaiti activists have called for protesters to camp outside parliament next Saturday on the eve of its opening session as they step up pressure to dissolve the newly elected house.

"In continuation of our peaceful movement, we call on the people of Kuwait to take part in a sleep-in (protest) at Erada Square on Saturday, December 15," in a notice posted overnight on the activists' Twitter account.

Saudi authorities on Sunday beheaded a Pakistani in the Muslim holy city of Mecca for stabbing to death a compatriot, the interior ministry said.

Altaf Hussein Hati was found guilty of stabbing a man in the throat and leaving him to bleed to death, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

With a snap election looming next month, the Israeli government and opposition traded barbs on Sunday over Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal's landmark weekend visit to Gaza.

The Hamas leader-in-exile's first-ever visit to the territory, during which he gave a speech pledging the movement would not cede "an inch" of historic Palestine, prompted anger in Israel and political recriminations.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Saturday annulled a decree he issued last month expanding his powers, an official told a Cairo news conference.

"The constitutional decree is annulled from this moment," said Selim al-Awa, an Islamist politician acting as spokesman of a meeting Morsi held earlier with other political leaders.

Police in Tunisia have seized guns and explosives and arrested two men from the Salafist stronghold of Jendouba, a security source said on Saturday.

The men were detained in the Fernana area near the Algerian border after a check on the rented car they were driving, Shems FM radio reported, citing the security source. Another two men escaped.