Saudi Arabia has barred an Iranian plane carrying Muslim pilgrims to Mecca from entering its airspace because the flight had not applied for a permit, aviation authorities said Thursday.

The plane was carrying 260 passengers heading to perform the lesser pilgrimage, but it was denied access to the kingdom's airspace Wednesday afternoon "due to the lack of a permit" to fly to Saudi Arabia, the kingdom's aviation authority said.

Washington warned Thursday it would not "stand by" while Iran supports rebels in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition pounded anti-government forces at the start of a third week of bombings.

In the most direct U.S. criticism yet of Tehran's backing of the Shiite Huthi rebels, Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would not accept foreign interference in Yemen.

One soldier was killed and three others wounded on Wednesday in a live-fire military exercise between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, official media said.

The Saudi Press Agency report did not specify which country the casualties were from.

The Saudi Ambassador to Beirut, Ali Awadh Asiri, has urged Hizbullah without naming it to deal with its own issues rather than meddle in Riyadh's affairs.

The parties that “shove” themselves into the Saudi-led coalition's move against Huthi rebels in Yemen and which “have the audacity” to criticize Saudi Arabia “should deal with their own affairs,” Asiri said in remarks published on Thursday.

Iran and Pakistan on Wednesday pledged to work to find a negotiated solution to the conflict in Yemen, as the Saudi-led air campaign against rebels nears its third week.

A military coalition of largely Sunni Muslim countries led by Riyadh has been bombarding Huthi Shiite rebels in Yemen in a bid to restore the government of fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Saudi oil production reached 10.3 million barrels per day in March, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi has said, a figure that is the highest on record.

"Average daily output hit 10.3 million bpd in March," Naimi, cited by the official Saudi Press Agency, said Tuesday night.

The March 14 General Secretariat lashed out at Hizbullah on Wednesday over its “programmed” campaign against Saudi Arabia, considering the party “only represents itself.”

“Since conflicts erupted in the region, Hizbullah continues to drag Lebanon into dangerous confrontations that are worrying the Lebanese who are only concerned with the results of the party's actions,” the secretariat said in a statement after its weekly meeting.

Two Saudi policemen were killed when their patrol came under fire in Riyadh early on Wednesday, police said, in the second drive-by shooting targeting police in less than two weeks.

The pre-dawn attack came in an eastern district of the capital, a police spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri remarked on Wednesday that Lebanon was “not in need of further problems created by Hizbullah”, the latest of which was dragging Tele Liban in the political and media battlefield in the country.

He condemned in a statement the use of “Lebanese media outlets to target friendly Arab countries and Saudi Arabia similar to the practices adopted by some suspicious voices and yellow journalism that want Lebanon to become a partner in antagonizing its Arab brothers for the sake of Iran and its regional policies.”

Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri paid a visit on Tuesday to Speaker Nabih Berri at his Ain el-Tineh residence to protest against Tele Liban's broadcast of an interview with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during which he renewed his harsh criticism of the kingdom, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Wednesday.

He relayed a “strongly-worded” message of protest from the kingdom against Nasrallah's accusations, reported the daily.