A Dubai court jailed a Pakistani for 15 years for smuggling heroin in bags containing copies of the Koran, prayer mats and other religious paraphernalia, a report said Wednesday.

The 30-year-old man, identified only by his initials M.T., was convicted of possessing 24 kilograms (53 pounds) of heroin that was stashed in five bags with hidden compartments, the Gulf News daily said.

Arab states in the Gulf plan to launch a joint naval force, a top Kuwaiti defense official said on Wednesday, in a bid to protect waters shared with neighboring Iran.

The new force is expected to be formed in the "coming months", Major General Ahmad Yussef al-Mulla was quoted as saying by the official KUNA news agency.

The emir of Qatar held talks with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Monday night, official media said, while both Gulf nations battle Islamic State extremists in Syria.

The Saudi monarch received "his brother" Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the palace in Jeddah on the Red Sea, the Saudi Press Agency said.

Gulf monarchies taking part in U.S.-led air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria could deploy special forces on the ground but only if certain conditions are met, analysts say.

Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have joined air strikes on the IS, which has seized swathes of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The White House Monday praised Vice President Joe Biden for being big enough to admit his mistakes, after he apologized to two key allies over an embarrassing diplomatic gaffe on the Middle East.

Biden called leaders in the two states, key members of the U.S. coalition taking on the Islamic State group, after he was quoted as saying that they had financed and armed the Sunni jihadists.

The United Arab Emirates has expressed surprise after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden suggested the Gulf state had armed and financed jihadists in Syria, along with other regional powers.

Biden's remarks were "amazing and ignore the role of the Emirates in the fight against extremism and terrorism," the UAE minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Mohammad Gargash, said in a statement carried late Saturday by the official WAM news agency.

Aircraft from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined U.S. warplanes in a new wave of bombing raids Friday against Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

Coalition fighter jets and robotic drone planes conducted six strikes in Syria on Thursday and Friday, hitting militant tanks, oil refineries and a training camp, the U.S. military said.

Australia's cabinet Friday authorised military air strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq and the deployment of special forces troops to combat the militants, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

Shares of the retail division of Dubai's Emaar Properties surged in first trading Thursday after an initial public offering that highlighted a return of investor confidence in the Gulf market.

The IPO of Emaar Malls Group -- which owns one the world's largest shopping centers, the Dubai Mall -- was aimed at raising $1.58 billion (1.25 billion euros) but was 30 times oversubscribed.

Instability in Yemen, where Shiite rebels overran the capital last week, threatens regional security, interior ministers of the Sunni-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council said after an emergency meeting on Wednesday.