Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday kicked off a visit to Washington, where he announced that his political camp is trying to spare Lebanon any repercussions from the “drastic disputes” with Hizbullah.

“We must exert efforts to end the rift and elect a president for Lebanon,” said Hariri after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the U.S. capital.

Saudi Arabia has declared nearly a month of air strikes on Yemeni rebels a success, but at the cost of a resurgent al-Qaida and with no sign of peace yet.

"Mission accomplished," a Saudi newspaper proclaimed Wednesday, echoing a banner on a U.S. warship where then-president George W. Bush infamously declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq in 2003.

Saudi Arabia beheaded two people for murder Wednesday, one of whom was from India, the interior ministry said.

Sajada Ansari, a shepherd, was convicted of robbing his Saudi boss as he slept and beating him to death with a hammer, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Pakistan's prime minister will travel to Saudi Arabia to discuss the war in Yemen, his office said Wednesday, after the Saudi-led military coalition announced an end to air strikes against rebels.

A statement from Nawaz Sharif's office said he would make a one-day trip to Riyadh on Thursday, and welcomed the Saudi announcement of the end of the air attacks in Yemen.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri stressed on Wednesday that his country's decision to boost the capabilities of the Lebanese army is to protect the country's legitimate institutions and safeguard its independence and stability.

“The grant comes in light of the enormous challenges confronting the Lebanese army,” Asiri said in an interview with the news channel France 24 , describing the decision of Saudi Arabia as “wise.”

Kuwait has deported a prominent opposition figure to neighbouring Saudi Arabia months after revoking his citizenship, his group said Wednesday.

Saad al-Ajmi, former spokesman of the Popular Action Movement (PAM), was arrested by secret police on Tuesday and escorted to the Saudi city of Khafji by road at night, PAM said in a statement.

Shiite rebels in Yemen on Wednesday demanded a complete end to attacks by a Saudi-led coalition as a condition for U.N.-sponsored talks, a day after the alliance declared an end to the first phase of its operations.

"We demand, after a complete end to the aggression against Yemen and the lifting of the blockade, to resume political dialogue... under the sponsorship of the United Nations," Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman for the Huthi rebels, said in a statement. 

President Barack Obama called on Iran help find a political solution in crisis-torn Yemen, accusing the Islamic republic of contributing to the conflict there.

Washington has accused Tehran of supplying arms to Huthi rebels who have seized power in Yemen, triggering a month-long Saudi-led Arab air campaign that has increased the risk of a regional conflict.

A Saudi-led coalition declared an end Tuesday to its military campaign four weeks after launching air strikes against rebels in Yemen, saying their threat to Saudi Arabia and its neighbors had been removed.

The coalition has "ended Operation Decisive Storm based on a request by the Yemeni government and President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi," its spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri, told a press briefing in the Saudi capital.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has ordered the National Guard, a ground force that exists apart from the army, to mobilize for operations against rebels in Yemen, the official SPA news agency said Tuesday.

It did not clarify how the National Guard would take part in the operation, which has seen a Saudi-led coalition launch air strikes against the rebels.