U.S. warships protecting American-flagged ships in the Strait of Hormuz may extend assistance to other countries' vessels, officials said Friday, after reports of Iranian forces harassing shipping.

The expanded U.S. naval presence is intended to signal to Iran that Washington is ready to safeguard shipping along the vital corridor, even at a moment of delicate diplomacy with Tehran over its nuclear program, experts said.

Speaker Nabih Berri had expressed his concern over the escalation of the Sunni-Shiite strife in the region, while emphasizing the need to safeguard the interests of Lebanese expatriates, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.

Berri had informed the visiting Lebanese Business and Investment Council in Saudi Arabia that “he disapproves of the harsh rhetoric, by Lebanese sides, against the kingdom.”

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani convicted of drug smuggling on Friday, the 73rd execution in the kingdom so far this year.

Shirin Khan Abbas Khan was put to death in Riyadh province after being found guilty of smuggling heroin into the kingdom in swallowed balloons, the interior ministry said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif congratulated his newly-installed Saudi counterpart on his appointment, Iranian media reported Friday, even as tensions flare between the rival regional powers over Yemen.

Zarif said he hoped that "relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Saudi monarchy will develop" following the nomination of Adel al-Jubeir as Riyadh's top diplomat.

Saudi Arabia's aging King Salman late Thursday merged the royal court with that of his new heir, further streamlining administration a day after a shake-up in the line of succession.

Based on a proposal from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who was appointed on Wednesday, Salman, 79, issued an order "joining the crown prince's court with the royal court," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The United Nations warned fuel shortages threaten to halt all relief operations in Yemen "within days" as Saudi-led air strikes and ground fighting killed 47 people in second city Aden.

Gulf Arab states rejected any neutral venue for U.N.-brokered peace talks as a confidential U.N. report supported their allegations that regional rival Tehran had been arming Yemen's Huthi Shiite rebels since 2009.

A Saudi border guard was killed Thursday along Yemen's frontier, raising to nine the death toll for the kingdom's armed forces since a Saudi-led air war on Yemeni rebels, the interior ministry said.

The air strikes launched on March 25 to halt an advance by Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels have sparked exchanges of fire along the border region, where all the Saudi casualties have occurred.

The Gulf Cooperation Council insisted Thursday that talks on ending Yemen's conflict be brokered by the regional body and held in Riyadh rather than a neutral venue as sought by Iran.

Tehran has called for the U.N. talks between Yemen's political factions to be held somewhere other than in any of the countries taking part in a Saudi-led military campaign against Shiite rebels.

A Saudi national who murdered his father and a drug trafficker were beheaded Thursday, bringing to 71 the number of executions carried out this year in the kingdom, the government said.

The number compares with 87 in the whole of 2014, according to an AFP tally.

A Saudi-led coalition pressed on with air strikes Thursday against Shiite rebels in south Yemen where fierce clashes raged between the insurgents and southern pro-government fighters, local sources said.

Warplanes hit Huthi rebel positions in the main southern city of Aden, in the districts of Khor Maksar and Dar Saad, helping pro-government forces to retake positions, sources among the southern fighters said.