The head of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious seat of learning, called on Sunday for education reform in Muslim countries in an effort to contain the spread of religious extremism.

Speaking at counter-terrorism forum in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, al-Azhar grand imam Ahmed al-Tayib linked extremism to "bad interpretations of the Koran and the sunna," the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Hizbullah has reportedly supervised and funded fighters planning to target U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab of Emirates and Jordan.

Sources told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday that there is new evidence proving Iran's involvement with al-Qaida and Nusra Front after Tehran embraced a number of fighters scheming to attack U.S. interests in Riyadh, Dubai and Amman.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have long enjoyed close relations, but Islamabad's new-found resolve for fighting the root causes of extremism has seen the Gulf state come in for rare criticism.

The two countries, both with majority Sunni Muslim populations, are bound together by shared Islamic religious ties, financial aid from oil-rich Saudi and Pakistani military assistance to the kingdom.

Deaths from the MERS virus have surged in Saudi Arabia, health ministry figures showed on Friday, after authorities warned of a seasonal increase in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

The ministry recorded five deaths on Thursday alone, bringing to 16 the number since February 11.

Military chiefs gathered in the Saudi capital on Thursday sought to bolster the Iraqi army against the jihadist Islamic State group, a Western diplomatic source said.

United States General Lloyd Austin, who heads the U.S.-led war against IS, is among the senior officers attending the two-day talks that opened Wednesday in Riyadh behind closed doors.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji headed to the Saudi capital Riyadh to take part in a two-day meeting for military leaders from more than 20 partner nations in a U.S.-led coalition to degrade and destroy Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Qahwaji traveled on Wednesday night to Saudi Arabia.

Kuwait's appeal court on Wednesday increased by two years the four-year jail sentence of an activist who tweeted comments deemed offensive to Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia.

Saleh al-Saeed was sentenced to four years in jail in December by a lower court for posting comments on Twitter in which he accused Saudi Arabia of grabbing land in Kuwait and Bahrain.

An appeals court in Saudi Arabia has upheld a 15-year jail term for a  human rights lawyer who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a watchdog said Wednesday.

The Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal, which hears terrorism cases, confirmed on Sunday the latest verdict against Waleed Abulkhair, said the Gulf Center for Human Rights.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman held talks in Riyadh Tuesday with Qatar's emir, in what an analyst sees as part of a regional effort to strengthen ties against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Qatar's Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani is the latest Gulf leader to visit Riyadh this week, after Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait.

A Saudi military helicopter crashed during a night training exercise in the northeast of the kingdom late on Monday, killing its four-member crew, the defense ministry said.

The aircraft came down in a training zone west of the King Khaled military base in Hafr al-Batin, some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Iraqi border, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.