France on Tuesday urged caution over supplying arms to Libya's fledgling unity government, saying an EU naval operation should ensure that weapons do not fall into the wrong hands.

At least 50 fighters and two civilians were killed Tuesday in clashes between rival anti-regime groups east of Syria's capital, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The powerful Jaish al-Islam, or Army of Islam, has been locked in clashes with rival factions led by al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate in the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Tuesday there is now a "real opportunity" for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement that would also lead to warmer ties between Egypt and the Jewish state.

In a live televised speech also addressed to the Palestinians and Israelis, Sisi urged them to draw hope from the "real and stable peace" between Israel and Egypt.

Libya's unity government called Tuesday for warplanes and helicopters to fight jihadists as it hailed international support for granting it an exemption to a longstanding embargo on weapons sales.

On Monday, the United States, Italy and Libya's allies and neighbors agreed in Vienna to arm the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) to confront the threat from the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday put to death a Pakistani man convicted of drug smuggling, bringing to 93 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.

Mohammed Ishaq Thawab Gul had been found guilty of trafficking heroin into the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Egypt's president has declared his support for a French proposal to hold a Mideast peace conference later this year.

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on Tuesday also called on Israel and the Palestinians to seize what he described as a "realistic" and "great" opportunity to reach a peaceful settlement to their decades-old conflict.

Yemen's government suspended its participation in talks with Iran-backed rebels Tuesday for the second time this month, the foreign minister said, in a new setback to the U.N.-backed peace process.

Jordan on Tuesday freed an Islamist preacher imprisoned for nearly a year for inciting hatred against the regime on social media, his lawyer said, following criticism from rights campaigners.

Iyad Qunaibi, a 40-year-old Kuwaiti-born Jordanian, was arrested in mid-June for posting an audio message entitled "Jordan on the brink of the abyss" on his Facebook page.

Attacks including suicide bombings killed at least 48 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, the second time in a week the Iraqi capital has been hit by a deadly spate of bombings.

A conference on the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, due to be held on May 30 in Paris, has been postponed, French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday.