Gulf leaders have reassured Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about the strength of their ties, official media said Monday, after he allegedly made offensive remarks about their countries in a leaked recording.

The reassurances came in telephone conversations initiated by Sisi, after a satellite television station aired the audio recording in which he apparently suggests that Gulf monarchies have more money than they need and that Egypt should have some.

A Saudi prince is on a hunting spree for rare birds in southwest Pakistan despite a court-imposed ban and the government's insistence that the foreign delegation is only on a diplomatic mission, senior officials said Monday.

The annual hunt has sparked controversy in recent years because of the Houbara Bustard's dwindling numbers, with the issue also shining a spotlight on traditionally close ties between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The United Nations said on Sunday that all parties in Yemen, where a Shiite militia dissolved the government and parliament two days ago, are to resume political negotiations, as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for the restoration to power of Western-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Factions including the widely condemned Huthi militia will resume talks on Monday, envoy Jamal Benomar said.

Saudi Arabia on Friday postponed for a fourth straight week the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam, his wife said.

Ensaf Haidar told AFP that he was not flogged, but she did "not know the reasons".

Saudi Arabia on Thursday executed four robbers who dressed as women to lure and kill their victim, as well as a Pakistani man for drug trafficking, the interior ministry said.

The beheadings bring to 26 the number of people executed in the kingdom this year, according to an AFP tally.

Saudi Arabia's new monarch isn't wasting time.

Since assuming the throne Jan. 23, King Salman has elevated some of his closest relatives and sidelined previous power-brokers, tightened decision-making and promised lavish payouts designed to win early goodwill.

The only al-Qaida plotter convicted over the 9/11 attacks has told American lawyers that members of the Saudi royal family donated millions of dollars to the terror group in the 1990s.

French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, dubbed the "20th hijacker," made the revelations in court papers filed in a New York federal court by lawyers for victims of the attacks who accuse Saudi Arabia of supporting al-Qaida.

Freed from her "bad dream" of three months in prison, Saudi activist Suad al-Shammari, an associate of detained blogger Raef Badawi, sees hope in the ascent to the throne of new King Salman.

But there is no immediate chance that Badawi or his detained lawyer Waleed Abulkhair can benefit from a prisoner amnesty announced by Salman, whose reign commenced on January 23 following the death of King Abdullah, Shammari said.

Saudi Arabia's new King Salman on Wednesday called the burning alive of a Jordanian fighter pilot "inhuman and contrary to Islam".

In a message of condolence to Jordan's King Abdullah II, he said the kingdom "learned with profound sadness of the martyrdom of Maaz al-Kassasbeh".

Saudi Arabia beheaded two convicted rapists and a murderer on Wednesday, the interior ministry said, bringing to 21 the number of people it has executed so far this year.

The three were all Saudis.