Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have broken up an al-Qaida cell comprising seven Arabs, who were plotting attacks in the Gulf state, an official statement said Thursday.

The cell was "plotting acts that would have harmed the security of the country, its citizens and foreign residents," said the statement carried by WAM state news agency.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined Wednesday to discuss Syria's possible use of chemical weapons against rebels, raising doubts over whether Washington still views such action as a "red line."

President Barack Obama has repeatedly warned Damascus against resorting to chemical weapons, hinting that the use of such arms or the prospect of militant groups gaining control of them could prompt a U.S. military intervention.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal Wednesday, in the latest of a string of talks with key players in the Middle East and the Gulf as he mulls policy on Syria.

Obama dropped by a meeting between Prince Saud and U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon at the White House, using a diplomatic practice designed to satisfy protocol between leaders of different political rank.

The United States plans to deploy 200 troops in Jordan because of "the deteriorating situation" in war-torn Syria, Information Minister Mohammad Momani said on Wednesday.

"The deployment of the troops is part of U.S.-Jordanian military cooperation to boost the Jordanian armed forces in light of the deteriorating situation in Syria," Momani told Agence France Presse.

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned on Wednesday the West that it will pay a heavy price for its alleged support of al-Qaida in Syria and said his regime's defeat is not an option.

Assad, whose has been battling an uprising since March 2011, told state television al-Ikhbariya in an interview that the West is playing with fire.

A retrial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak over his role in the deaths of protesters in 2011 is to open on May 11, judicial sources told Agence France Presse on Wednesday.

The decision comes as Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the former president back to Tora prison from a Cairo military hospital after his health was deemed stable.

Protesters in Bahrain plan to step up demands for reform ahead of this weekend's Formula One Grand Prix, setting the scene for a showdown with authorities determined to stage an incident-free race.

The main opposition al-Wefaq political bloc has called for a massive rally to coincide with free practice on Friday, the same day the radical February 14 Movement has urged youths to protest under the slogan "Volcano of Anger".

Eleven migrants trying to reach Europe died after their boat capsized off the north coast of Morocco, medical sources and a human rights group said on Wednesday.

Of the 34 people traveling in the boat, reached up by the Moroccan navy at midday on Tuesday, two children, three women and six men died, and another 12 were hospitalized, a doctor in the coastal town of Hoceima told Agence France Presse.

Bombings in Iraq, including one against an MP's convoy, killed three people and wounded 18 on Wednesday, just days ahead of the country's first elections since U.S. troops departed, officials said.

In the deadliest attack, a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint in Abu Ghraib, west of the capital, killing two people and wounding six, while another car bomb in the Jihad area of south Baghdad killed at least one person and wounded six, an interior ministry official and medical sources said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab countries opposed to the rule of President Bashar Assad undermined dialogue.

"Right now we see this process is making a negative contribution to the (Geneva) decisions," Lavrov told reporters in Istanbul, in remarks translated to Turkish from Russian, referring to a 2012 accord among world powers in Geneva aimed at solving the Syria conflict through talks involving all parties.