Forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh clashed Wednesday with dissident tribesmen in the Yemeni capital, residents said, while the veteran leader was in Riyadh to sign a power transfer deal.

The clashes broke out between gunmen loyal to dissident tribal chief Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar and pro-Saleh troops in al-Hasaba district, while explosions were heard in the nearby neighborhood of Sufan, residents there said.

Iranian lawmakers voted Wednesday to consider expelling Britain's ambassador in retaliation for newly imposed Western sanctions, said the parliamentary website.

The parliament introduced an emergency bill to be voted on Sunday that would see diplomatic relations downgraded to the more junior level of charge d'affaires if passed, the website reported.

Turkey has bombed the Sulaimaniyah and Arbil provinces of Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region, wounding one civilian, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday.

"The Turkish aerial bombardment was renewed on Tuesday night and the civilian Ismail Baz Hamed, 20, was wounded during this bombing," said Hassan Abdullah, the mayor of the Qalat Dizah area in Sulaimaniyah.

Days of protest in Egypt, ahead of elections expected to produce big wins for the Muslim Brotherhood, have stirred fears in Israel about bilateral ties and the future of the countries' peace treaty.

Israel had largely avoided comment on the unrest, which has seen dozens of Egyptians killed, but with protesters showing no signs of calling off their demonstrations, officials here have started to show concern.

The death toll from a fresh surge of violence in Syrian flashpoints has risen to 33, rights activists said Wednesday, adding that among the dead are six children and teenagers and five army defectors.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement that 28 civilians were killed on Tuesday by security force gunfire, in addition to the five defectors.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived unexpectedly in Riyadh early Wednesday for the signing of a Gulf-sponsored power-transfer deal, an official here told Agence France Presse.

Saleh's visit came after the U.N.'s Yemen envoy said on Tuesday a deal aimed at ending months of political deadlock had been approved both by the opposition and by the president.

Tunisia entered a new era on Tuesday with the inaugural session of its first-ever democratically elected constituent assembly, 10 months after a popular uprising ended years of autocracy.

The 217-member assembly, the first elected body of the Arab Spring, was expected to confirm a deal whereby the Islamist Ennahda party and two other parties split the country's top three jobs between themselves.

Egypt's military ruler said on Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by end of June 2012, and that a referendum on the immediate transfer of power would be organized if necessary.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who took power when Hosni Mubarak was ousted, said in a televised address that he had accepted the cabinet's resignation, a week before crucial legislative polls which he said would be held on schedule.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Monday that there is no plan for military intervention in Syria because the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad's regime wants to proceed peacefully.

"The situation in Syria is different (from Libya). We have no intention of military intervention because the (opposition) Syrian National Council prefers to continue with peaceful efforts," Juppe told a press conference in Kuwait.

Gunmen kidnapped two foreigners, including a Frenchwoman, and their Yemeni driver from a Red Cross vehicle in the southern province of Lahij on Tuesday, government and security officials said.

"A French woman of Moroccan origin was kidnapped along with another foreigner and their Yemeni driver in the town of Msaimeer," around 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Huta, the capital of Lahij, a security official said.