Human Rights Watch urged Kuwait on Tuesday to amend laws that officials are using to crack down on free speech and send people to jail for criticizing the country's ruler.

HRW also called on Kuwaiti authorities to fulfill their promises to resolve the decades-old problem of over 100,000 stateless people, or bidoons, who claim the right to citizenship.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora met on Tuesday with Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who expressed readiness to help Lebanon overcome its crises.

A statement issued by Saniora's press office, said the lawmaker thanked the Emir because “the state of Kuwait has always stood by Lebanon in all stages and has supported Lebanon and the Lebanese people at all levels.”

The Kuwaiti coastguard seized on Monday an Iranian boat carrying 12 Iranians and two Afghans that had entered the Gulf state's territorial waters, the interior ministry and a security source said.

Patrols spotted the boat after it entered Kuwaiti waters early in the morning, seized the vessel and detained all 14 on board, the ministry said in a statement.

Human Right Watch on Sunday condemned as "shocking" a Kuwaiti court's five-year jail sentence followed by deportation against an online rights activist for criticizing the emirate's ruler on Twitter.

A lower court imposed the sentence on Abdullah Fairouz Abdullah Abd al-Kareem, 30, on January 9 for posting comments on the micro-blogging website deemed offensive to the emir.

Kuwait's cabinet on Thursday approved a draft budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year projecting a 1.62 billion-dinar ($5.7 billion, 4.2 billion euro) deficit for the oil-rich Gulf State.

The OPEC member has projected a deficit in each of the past 14 fiscal years but ended each year in the black, accumulating more than $300 billion in budget surplus.

Kuwait's three oil refineries, with a total production capacity of 930,000 barrels per day, halted operations on Wednesday following a power cut, a spokesman for the national refiner said.

"The three refineries have stopped operations, with the exception of the gas plants, after a power cut," said Khaled al-Asousi, spokesman for the state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) which owns the three refineries.

The United States pledged on Wednesday 76 million dollars to Lebanon to help it cope with the rising number of Syrian refugees escaping the war in their country, the state-run National News Agency reported.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told caretaker Premier Najib Miqati during a meeting they held in Kuwait that the U.S. earmarked 76 million dollars to Lebanon to support the Syrian refugees, NNA said.

Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati reiterated on Wednesday his call on the international community to set up camps inside Syrian territories to host the refugees after they posed a huge burden on Lebanon.

“The international community should take seriously the idea to establish safe camps inside Syria,” Miqati said at the international fundraising conference in Kuwait.

Donors meeting in Kuwait pledged more than $2.4 billion in humanitarian aid for victims of the Syrian war Wednesday, less than half the $6.5 billion sought by the United Nations.

The meeting came just a week before the so-called 'Geneva II' peace conference aimed at finding a political solution to the 34-month conflict that has claimed more than 130,000 lives and displaced millions of people.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati arrived Tuesday in Kuwait to represent Lebanon in the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria, which will kick off Wednesday under the chairmanship of U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

“Following his arrival, Miqati headed to his residence location at the Bayan Palace,” his office said.