Yemen's Huthi rebels rallied their supporters in the capital Tuesday, pledging that backers of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh were safe despite his death at the hands of the insurgents.

U.N.-backed peace talks for war-ravaged Syria were set to resume in Geneva Tuesday, but without Syrian government negotiators, who sources said have yet to determine if they will return.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday slapped down warnings of widespread Middle East unrest as he told anxious Arab leaders he still intends to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, on the eve of a much-anticipated policy speech.

Amid a frantic round of telephone diplomacy, Trump told Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah that the deeply controversial move was coming, but crucially did not give a timeframe.

A U.S. move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital would mean the end of President Donald Trump's peace efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior Palestinian official warned Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia called on Tuesday for a Yemen free of "militias supported by Iran", in its first official statement since rebels killed their erstwhile ally former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

"The Saudi Arabian cabinet expresses the hope that the uprising of the Yemeni people against the sectarian terrorist Huthi militias supported by Iran will free Yemen of abuse, death threats and the appropriation of public and private property," it said in a statement published on the official SPA news agency.

The EU's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said Tuesday that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved "through negotiations," as U.S. President Donald Trump mulls recognizing the city as the capital of Israel.

Egyptian police on Tuesday arrested former interior minister Habib al-Adly who had been on the run to avoid serving a prison sentence for embezzlement, his lawyer told AFP.

Adly, whose iron-fisted command of the country's police helped fuel a 2011 uprising that unseated longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak, was arrested in Cairo, lawyer Essam al-Batawy said.

Turkey and the Palestinians warned on Tuesday of dire diplomatic repercussions if President Donald Trump goes ahead with a possible recognition of the hotly contested city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told parliament that his country's response "could go as far as us cutting diplomatic ties with Israel."

Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit warned Tuesday of the "danger" of the United States recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital or relocating its embassy there, calling on Washington to reconsider.

Abul Gheit told delegates of member states that they had decided to meet in Cairo "given the danger of this matter, if it were to happen, and the possible negative consequences not only for the situation in Palestine but also for the Arab and Islamic region".

The Gulf Cooperation Council wrapped up an annual summit Tuesday without discussing the Qatar crisis, the worst in the bloc's history, but they did blast Yemen's Huthi rebels and Iran.