When Saudi Arabia's king Abdullah died a year ago on Saturday, his subjects expected their country to keep a steady course under new King Salman.

They were in for a royal shock.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the first stop on a trip to raise the economic giant's political profile in a troubled Middle East.

Xi, making his first presidential visit to the region, will also travel to Egypt and Iran during his five-day tour.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday expressed "deep concern" to Saudi King Salman over escalating tensions between the Sunni kingdom and predominantly Shiite Iran.

Sharif visited Riyadh in an effort to ease those tensions and is to head on Tuesday to Saudi's rival Iran where he is expected to meet President Hassan Rouhani.

Saudi Arabia said Monday it had arrested a suspect for attempting to firebomb a government building in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east during unrest over a Shiite cleric's execution.

The ministry of interior said the suspect had been arrested for "attempting to set fire to a government building in Qatif using Molotov cocktails" on January 9.

Indian Ocean archipelago and Saudi Arabia ally the Comoros said Friday it had cut diplomatic relations with Iran over what it termed Tehran's "aggression" towards Riyadh.

A foreign ministry statement said the Comoros viewed Tehran as "interfering" in "the internal affairs of certain countries" and "not respecting diplomatic conventions".

The Saudi grant to the Lebanese army is not facing new obstacles and should be implemented “soon, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

A high-ranking military source told the daily that “some technical details need to be addressed.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir insisted Thursday that their countries' ties remain strong despite recent tensions over Washington's outreach to Iran.

The top envoys met in London for talks on a variety of Middle East issues, including the wars in Syria and Yemen and the imminent implementation of the Iran nuclear deal.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari received the new Saudi ambassador's credentials on Thursday despite calls for his expulsion after Riyadh executed a leading Shiite cleric.

Thamer al-Sabhan is the first Baghdad-based Saudi ambassador in a quarter century, after relations were cut following ex-president Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

A Guantanamo Bay inmate has been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon announced Monday, bringing the remote military prison's remaining population down to 103.

Muhammed Abd Al Rahman Awn Al-Shamrani had spent 14 years in Guantanamo, where he was held without trial and was suspected of being an al-Qaida member who "possibly" worked as Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, according to his leaked prisoner file.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday accused Saudi Arabia of using its row with Tehran to "negatively affect" peace talks on the Syrian conflict.

"Saudi Arabia's approach is to create tension intended to negatively affect the Syrian crisis," Zarif said in a foreign ministry statement.