Middle Eastern rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran have been holding talks in Baghdad in recent weeks, an Iraqi government official and a Western diplomat told AFP.

The official-level meetings aim to restore relations severed five years ago between the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Islamic republic of Iran.

A Saudi university near the country's border with Yemen caught fire early Thursday after the kingdom's air defenses intercepted a barrage of ballistic missiles and bomb-laden drones.

The interception scattered debris on Jizan University's campus, which caused a fire that has been contained, the Saudi-led coalition at war in Yemen said in a statement. It said no one was killed, and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Saudi Arabia fervently denies involvement in Jordan's royal feud, but the arrest of an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has stirred unease in Riyadh, which sources say is pushing for his release.

Saudi Arabia executed three soldiers Saturday it accused of committing "high treason," without elaborating on which enemy the kingdom believed the men aided.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency identified the men as soldiers working in the Defense Ministry.

Energy giant Saudi Aramco said it has struck a 12.4-billion-dollar deal to sell a minority stake in a newly formed oil pipeline business to a consortium led by US-based EIG Global Energy Partners.

The French presidency announced that President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who met on Thursday, share "the same desire to see a credible government" in Lebanon to bring it out of its acute crisis, media reports said Friday.

Saudi Arabia announced plans Tuesday to pump investments worth $3.2 trillion into the national economy by 2030, roping in the oil-reliant kingdom's biggest companies in a major new economic diversification push.

A projectile attack sparked a fire at an oil terminal in southern Saudi Arabia, the country's energy ministry said Friday, on the sixth anniversary of a Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Russia said Saturday it strongly condemns a drone strike on an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia claimed by Yemen's Huthi rebels, and urged parties to the conflict to halt violence.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Saturday it had launched air strikes in support of pro-government forces battling a quickening Huthi rebel advance on the northern city of Marib.