Ten years ago, Egypt's then-defence minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rallied citizens by promising to move the country out of the "terrorist" shadow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Today, the former general rules a nation where expressions of dissent have been quashed, the media is muzzled and the justice system is a labyrinth even legal experts say they cannot navigate.

Over the decades, Egypt -- the most populous Arab nation and a key US ally -- "was never a very liberal democracy", said Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Gulf oil states are using their vast wealth to build influence across the far-flung South Pacific, experts have told AFP, tearing a page straight out of China's Belt and Road playbook.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- two of the world's biggest crude oil producers -- have been ramping up efforts to shed their reputations as global climate laggards.

Both have been lavishing money and attention on small, isolated and often indebted Pacific nations, where rising sea levels are already creeping up on low-lying coastal communities.

A security guard and a gunman were killed in an exchange of gunfire in front of the US consulate in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah on Wednesday, officials said.

No Americans were harmed in the shooting outside the consulate, which was put under lockdown, the State Department said.

"At 6:45 pm (1545 GMT), a man stopped in a car in front of the consulate building and got out with a weapon in his hand," the official Saudi Press Agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

"Security forces reacted... resulting in an exchange of fire that killed the assailant," it said.

Four Israelis suspected of committing violence against Palestinians last week in the occupied West Bank have been detained under a controversial security measure, a senior security official said Wednesday.

In a rare move, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant issued administrative arrest warrants against them, a measure usually reserved for Palestinians.

Administrative detention is a controversial measure under which suspects are held without charge or trial for renewable periods of up to six months.

Edouard Mendy joined Al-Ahli on Wednesday as the Senegal goalkeeper became the third player to leave Chelsea for Saudi Arabia since the end of the season.

Mendy is reported to have cost Al-Ahli around £16 million ($20 million) after he opted to leave the Premier League club having lost his place to Kepa Arrizabalaga in the second half of last term.

"Welcome Mendy... best goalkeeper in the world," Al-Ahli posted on social media accompanied by a video clip of the 31-year-old putting pen to paper on his contract.

Iran has taken Canada to the International Court of Justice for allowing victims of alleged terror attacks to claim damages from Tehran, the UN's top tribunal said on Wednesday.

Tehran's case claims that Ottawa, which listed the Islamic Republic as a sponsor of terrorism in 2012, had violated Iran's state immunity.

Iran asked the Hague-based ICJ to make Canada overturn a law passed in the same year that allows victims to collect damages from state terror sponsors in Canadian civil courts.

Hundreds gathered in the Sudanese capital Khartoum Wednesday to pray for peace on the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, but gunfire shattered the brief respite, residents said.

Witnesses in the capital's twin city of Omdurman late Wednesday reported air strikes and anti-aircraft fire, despite separate unilateral truces announced by the warring generals for the holiday.

"The country can't take any more of this," Khartoum resident Kazem Abdel Baqi told AFP earlier in the day.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that no new nuclear agreement was on the table with Iran, after quiet new diplomacy between the adversaries.

"There is no agreement in the offing, even as we continue to be willing to explore diplomatic paths," Blinken said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"We'll see by their actions," Blinken said of the future relationship, calling on Iran to choose to "not take actions that further escalate the tensions" with the United States and in the Middle East.

Alsafi Mansur's "lifelong" wish to take part in the hajj pilgrimage came true this year, after Saudi Arabia lifted curbs that kept the elderly away from the compulsory Islamic ritual.

"I feared that I would die before performing hajj," said the 71-year-old Libyan national, carrying his medication along for the trip.

"Hajj has been a lifelong wish for me," the father-of-seven said at Mount Arafat, praying under temperatures that peaked at 48 degrees Celsius (118.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday.

In the decade since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power, Egypt has built dozens of motorways that zigzag across Cairo -- crushing entire neighbourhoods, precious green spaces and historic gravesites.

The administration of Sisi, a former army general who rose to the presidency in 2013 after deposing Mohamed Morsi, has placed a massive premium on construction projects, in what experts call a "bulldozer" development policy.