Saudi and Qatari newspapers on Tuesday lashed out at Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over his implicit criticism of Saudi Arabia and Qatar for their calls to arm Syrian opposition fighters.

"Gulf (states) should boycott Maliki and his government," wrote Tariq al-Homayed, the editor of Asharq al-Awsat, calling for the "punishment of all who stand with the tyrant of Damascus, first and foremost Maliki's government."

"Boycott him to prevent the emergence of a new Saddam or another Bashar," wrote Homayed in the Saudi owned pan-Arab daily, referring to the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad.

The Saudi media campaign against Maliki came after the Iraqi prime minister said Baghdad rejected "any arming (of Syrian rebels) and the process to overthrow the Assad regime," arguing that the call by Qatar and Saudi to arm Syrian rebels "will leave a greater crisis in the region."

He also cautioned that "those countries that are interfering in Syria's internal affairs will interfere in the internal affairs of any country."

- Agence France Presse

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