An Iranian delegation will meet Saudi officials next week to discuss arrangements for this year's hajj pilgrimage, the first dialogue between the rival powers since a diplomatic crisis erupted in January.

Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with Iran on January 3, a day after its missions in Tehran and Mashhad were stormed and set alight by mobs following the Sunni kingdom's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.

A Saudi police colonel was shot dead in the Riyadh region on Tuesday, the interior ministry said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.

Colonel Kattab Majid al-Hammadi was killed by gunfire "from an unknown source" in the town of Duwadimi, the ministry said in a statement, adding that an investigation has been launched.

Algeria has defended its stand against foreign military intervention, in a message to Saudi Arabia with which ties are strained over the Yemen conflict and Lebanon, national news agency APS said on Monday.

It said President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in a message to Saudi Arabia's King Salman, stressed that non-interference was a principle for Algiers "and not, as it may appear, a sign of opposition to Arab partners".

Speaker Nabih Berri had voiced concerns to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Lebanese officials may no longer be able to reach an “internal solution” to the deadlock over the presidential elections, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Monday.

He encouraged Ban to seek dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Iran, “because an agreement between them may raise hope that an agreement may be reached over a president for Lebanon.”

Thousands of Yemenis rallied in the rebel-held capital on Saturday to denounce the Saudi-led coalition that launched a military campaign against the country's insurgents a year ago, an AFP photographer said.

The intervention in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi that began on March 26 last year has yet to deal a decisive blow to the Huthi rebels and their allies, who still control the capital Sanaa and key parts of the country.

A Saudi journalist has been sentenced to five years in prison over tweets deemed insulting to the kingdom's rulers, Amnesty International said on Friday.

Alaa Brinji, who has reportedly already served two years behind bars, was found guilty on Thursday of a list of charges including "insulting the rulers (and) inciting public opinion," the rights group said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia executed two convicted murderers on Thursday, one of them a Jordanian, bringing to 78 the number of death sentences it has carried out this year.

Jordanian Ammar al-Sager was found guilty of stabbing Saudi citizen Osama al-Bukhaitan to death, the interior ministry said.

Saudi Arabia put to death a citizen convicted of murder on Wednesday, bringing to 76 the number of executions it has carried out this year.

Authorities carried out the sentence against Abdullah al-Harbi in Buraydah, north of Riyadh, after his conviction for shooting dead another man, the interior ministry said.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's ongoing criticism of Saudi Arabia and Arab countries, while warning of the repercussions of the prolonged vacuum in the presidency.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Hizbullah and Nasrallah's persistent attacks against the kingdom and Arab countries undermine the interests of the Lebanese people, as well as their stability and source of income.”

Saudi security forces have arrested a Shiite preacher accused of glorifying Hizbullah, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hussein al-Radi was detained after Gulf Arab states declared Hizbullah a "terrorist" group earlier this month and brought in tough new measures against anyone supporting it.