UK-based Arabic papers endorse latest calls for the transfer of power in Iraq to be speeded up, following demonstrations in Basra and a letter from a top Iraqi cleric to the US president and UK prime minister.
In Iraq itself, papers are not published on Fridays. Elsewhere in the region, the press steps up its rhetoric over Israel's insistence on building a security barrier in the West Bank.
A Palestinian paper parodies what it calls the planned US "invasion" of Mars, and asks whether Washington has discovered an "axis of planetary evil".
The mass demonstrations that took off in Basra and Baghdad with the participation of tens of thousands were tantamount to a request for a formal legal statement against US policy... The demonstrators' main slogan was a demand to carry out elections...
The USA invaded Iraq and occupied it under the pretext of democracy. It justified the occupation with the excuse of seeking democracy and transferring authority to an elected body. It is now contradicting itself, rejecting democracy and elections.
Al-Quds Al-Arabi - UK-based
No doubt there is an urgent need to hand over the government of Iraq to its people as soon as possible... Iraq has been liberated. More open elections will be held in future. Surely they are not ready to lengthen the period of a dark past?
Al-Sharq al-Awsat - UK-based
At the end of the road, it is not important for the UN to return to Iraq to help in the elections and constitution. What is important is for it to carry out its ethical and legal responsibilities by monitoring what is happening in the country.
Al-Hayat - UK-based
How can the Israeli prime minister be persuaded that the barbed wire surrounding the Gaza Strip and the separation wall... will not give Israel peace and stability, unless it gives just peace to the Palestinians?
Al-Dustur - Jordan
The government of rabbis and generals in Israel will not stop hurling killer blows at all Arab and international peace efforts. The latest of these blows was the strange expression given to the racist separation wall being erected in the West Bank. It has officially been called 'the terrorism prevention fence'!
Al-Akhbar - Egypt
What is probably the most important thing that Sharon wants to achieve through the construction of the crazy wall is to make every Palestinian ask where we were and where we are now... He wants to destroy Palestinian hope with his tanks, warplanes, bulldozers, and his wall.
Al-Ayyam - Palestinian
The racist separation wall cutting through Palestinian territory will not bring peace and security for the Israeli people.
Al-Ittihad - UAE
The problem is not in the number of Israeli fences. The real problem is the Arab fences and their numbers. They were built quickly between Arab states, not against Israel... There are 24 fences separating all the Arab League states, politically, economically and geographically.
Al-Watan - Oman
The US is preparing itself to establish a new base for its forces on the moon in preparation for an invasion of Mars and other planets... What are the other planets chosen for the US invasion? Are they an axis of planetary evil?
Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah - Palestinian
BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
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