The United Arab Emirates has renewed its call on its citizens to avoid travel to Lebanon and Syria over the security situation in the two countries despite a visit by President Michel Suleiman to Abu Dhabi to review the decision.

In a statement released on Monday, the UAE foreign ministry advised citizens not to travel to Lebanon and Syria out of its keenness on the safety of the nationals abroad.

President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday held talks with the leaders of Qatar and the UAE as part of his attempts to persuade several Gulf countries to reconsider their travel warnings to Lebanon.

In Doha, Suleiman briefed Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on his recent call for resuming all-party talks, in line with the 2008 Doha Agreement, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported.

The United Arab Emirates will expel around 1,000 Lebanese expats living in the country as President Michel Suleiman is scheduled to head to the gulf state on Wednesday.

Some of the Lebanese expats, who were expelled during the past few weeks, were forced to sign a document claiming that they support Hizbullah or that they are carrying out “illegal security acts,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates economy grew by 4.2 percent in 2011 but is expected to expand at just three percent this year as oil prices decrease, the Gulf country's economy minister said Monday.

Gross domestic product jumped from 1.3 percent in 2010 to "4.2 percent in 2011," Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri told reporters.

The head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards on Thursday made a pointed visit to three islands in the Gulf whose ownership is fiercely disputed by Tehran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Guards Commander Mohammed Ali Jafari, accompanied by his naval commander, Ali Fadavi, went to the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb to deliver a speech stressing they were Iran's "strategic and sensitive territory," the Guards' official news website said.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan called on Saturday for an urgent Arab League meeting to discuss reports of a massacre in the central Syrian town of Houla.

The "massacre shows the failure of Arab and international efforts to stop the violence against civilians in Syria," said Sheikh Abdullah.

President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday said that a letter sent to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon by Syria’s envoy to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari was not based on “verified facts.”

“It is not based on verified facts, and moreover the information of the Army Command and the Lebanese security agencies say totally otherwise,” Suleiman told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly during a meeting at the Baabda Palace.

A UAE court jailed 10 pirates for life on Tuesday after they were convicted of hijacking a ship east of Oman in the Arabian Sea last year, state news agency WAM reported.

The life sentence, which equates to 25 years, will be followed by deportation, WAM said.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Tuesday that there are no dangers in Lebanon that can prevent Arab nationals from visiting the country.

He said: “Lebanon is keen on the safety of the visiting nationals.”

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour held talks on Tuesday with diplomats of three Gulf countries that have called on their citizens to leave Lebanon in his ongoing effort to persuade them to review their decisions.

The current security tension in Lebanon is provisional and does not require such decisions, Mansour reportedly told the ambassadors of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait.