Saudi Arabia on Tuesday beheaded a convicted Jordanian drug smuggler, bringing to 18 the number of foreigners and locals executed in the kingdom this year.

Authorities carried out the sentence against Mohammed Salamah Fareeh al-Azazma in the northwestern Jawf region after he was found guilty of "smuggling a large amount of amphetamines," the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Programming at a pan-Arab news channel owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was unavailable on Monday, hours after its first transmission from Bahrain.

The satellite feed of Alarab News Channel showed only promotional material, and an Alarab executive declined to comment.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday beheaded a convicted murderer, bringing to five the number of people executed since new King Salman took office, continuing the kingdom's use of the harshest punishment.

Abdelrahman al-Jahni, a Saudi, was convicted of shooting another man dead during a dispute, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

A U.S. defense contractor said Sunday that two of its American employees came under fire in the latest attack against Westerners in Saudi Arabia.

It was the second time in recent months that staff of the contractor Vinnell Arabia have been targeted.

Gunmen fired at two U.S. citizens Friday on a road in oil-rich Eastern Province, leaving one wounded, in the fourth anti-Western attack in Saudi Arabia in as many months, police said.

"At 2:00 pm today... a car carrying two American nationals... came under fire from an unknown source, resulting in one of them being wounded and hospitalized," said a police spokesman, quoted by the official SPA news agency.

Saudi Arabian blogger Raef Badawi, who could face another round of flogging on Friday for "insulting Islam," is a fighter for free speech whose health is worsening, his wife says.

His sentence of 1,000 lashes has drawn worldwide outrage and been dismissed as "cruel and inhuman" by U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Saudi Arabia postponed Friday the flogging of a blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam for a third week in a row, his wife said.

Raef Badawi "was not flogged" on Friday, his wife Ensaf Haidar told AFP, adding that the reason was unclear.

Chairman of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Friday that Tehran was keen on Lebanon's stability and stressed it was up to the Lebanese rival factions to resolve the presidential impasse.

“The latest political developments in the region help consolidate stability in Lebanon,” said Boroujerdi following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

Saudi Arabia's new King Salman has tightened his hold on power, firing two sons of his predecessor and replacing the heads of intelligence and other key agencies in a sweeping shakeup.

The appointments, which analysts said supported signs the kingdom will chart a steady course on foreign and oil policy, came a week after Salman, 79, took the throne following the death of King Abdullah.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri has paid tribute to Saudi King Abdullah, who passed away last week, saying the monarch had been keen on preserving Lebanon's stability.

Abdullah “had made exceptional efforts over the past years to preserve the security and stability of Lebanon and stop it from sliding into the wars and storms that raged in the region and threatened to expand to our country,” Hariri told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published on Wednesday.