A French delegation will reportedly arrive in Lebanon in the upcoming weeks to tackle the shipping of $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese military.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, a military-technical French delegation will discuss with the army command the delivery of the first batch of weapons that are expected to arrive in Lebanon in April.

Despite months of embarrassment for Egypt over a series of alleged leaks of sensitive remarks including about Gulf allies, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears to have avoided a major diplomatic furore.

The tapes, aired by Islamist television channels, purportedly revealed conversations which followed the military's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 when Sisi was army chief.

Saudi Arabia overtook India in 2014 as the world's biggest importer of defense equipment, fueled by tensions in the Middle East, according to a study published Sunday by respected analysts IHS Jane's.

Global defense trade currently stands at $64.4 billion, said the report from the London-based defense specialists.

A widely followed "whistle-blower" who tweeted about the Saudi royal family accused Twitter on Friday of succumbing to pressure by suspending his account.

The user, whose account was @mujtahidd, told Agence France-Presse that Twitter cited the posting in April 2014 of a "private document" as the reason for his suspension.

An attempt to smuggle 150,000 captagon pills to Saudi Arabia was thwarted recently through cooperation between authorities from Lebanon and the kingdom, the Internal Security Forces announced in a statement on Friday.

It said that the pills were concealed in paintings, packed, and then shipped by mail to Saudi Arabia.

The MERS virus has killed 10 more people in Saudi Arabia over the past week, pushing the death toll above 400, as health officials broaden their campaign to halt its spread.

Saudi Arabia is the country worst-hit by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal called Thursday on the U.S.-led coalition conducting air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to fight the jihadists on the ground, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry noted that military pressure may be needed to oust Syria's President Bashar Assad.

Saudi Arabia, part of the anti-IS coalition, "stresses the need to provide the military means needed to face this challenge on the ground," Faisal said during a press conference with Kerry.

Saudi Arabia beheaded one of its citizens for murder Thursday, adding to what Amnesty International has called an unprecedented pace of executions in the kingdom.

Manie bin Ali bin Muhsin al-Gahtani was convicted of gunning down another man, the Interior Ministry said in a statement reported by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Army leadership reportedly received confirmation from the concerned French authorities that they will start shipping $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese military in April.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Thursday, French officials contacted high-ranking military officials recently and informed them that the first batch of arms will be delivered soon.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry briefed wary Gulf ministers Thursday about his latest nuclear talks with Iran, as Washington and its regional allies seek to stabilise a troubled Middle East.

Fresh from three days of negotiations in Switzerland, Kerry gathered at a Riyadh air base with foreign ministers from the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations.