Gulf leaders will discuss a proposal for a closer political union among them that could begin with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Bahraini information minister said on Saturday.

"The idea of a Gulf union will be on the agenda of the summit in Riyadh" on Monday, said Samira Rajab.

Saudi King Abdullah on Friday sacked one of his advisers, an outspoken critic of the sexes mingling outside the home, something banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The state news agency SPA published the decree announcing the dismissal of Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, an adviser to the royal cabinet, without providing further details.

The double agent who infiltrated al-Qaida and helped foil a plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner held a British passport in addition to being a Saudi national, CNN reported Thursday.

The man was sent by Saudi counterterrorism agents into Yemen as a mole after it was learned that al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was developing an updated model of the underwear bomb that failed to explode in a Christmas Day 2009 attempt.

The man ordered by al-Qaida's branch in Yemen to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner was a double agent who infiltrated the group and volunteered for the suicide attack, with Saudi intelligence likely playing a key role, U.S. media reported Tuesday.

American officials leaked out details of the extraordinary intelligence coup two days after the White House announced a plot by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had been successfully thwarted.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday renewed a warning to its citizens to leave Syria and not to travel to the country, hit by over a year of deadly unrest.

"Due to the continuing deterioration of the security situation in Syria, the foreign ministry renews its warning to all citizens from travelling to Syria," the ministry said in a statement carried by the SPA state news agency.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has announced that he does not intend to rejoin the March 14 camp, slamming the Free Patriotic Movement as an “irrational” political movement that is “paralyzing everything.”

Commenting on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia in an interview to be published on Saturday, Jumblat hoped to restore his previous relation with the kingdom, saying Riyadh was dismayed by his support in 2011 for the nomination of Prime Minister Najib Miqati for premiership following the collapse of Saad Hariri’s government.

The debate flared up again on Friday between the Syrian and Saudi ambassadors to Lebanon over the issue of a Syria-bound arms ship recently seized in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

Syrian ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali declared on NBN television that he has severed ties with Saudi ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri, saying “he’s the one who dealt an unfriendly blow to a brotherly relation.”

Saudi King Abdullah ordered on Friday the return of the kingdom's ambassador to Egypt and the reopening of the mission after it was shut last week in the wake of angry protests, state news agency SPA said.

The king "instructed the kingdom's ambassador to Cairo to resume his post on Sunday, and ordered the reopening of the embassy and the consulates in Alexandria and Suez," SPA reported, quoting an unnamed official.

Saudi Arabia has assured a high ranking Egyptian delegation visiting the kingdom following Riyadh's closure of its Cairo embassy over protests that relations remain "solid", the SPA state news agency said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also told the delegation that Riyadh does not rule out that "foreign elements" could have plotted to cause the tension between the two Arab heavyweights, SPA reported late on Thursday.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin hailed on Friday the Lebanese army for intercepting the armed shipment in its territorial water.

“We hope that the probe would reveal those who are behind this criminal attempt,” Zasypkin told reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.