Thousands March Across the Middle East, Most Peacefully

Thousands in Oman marched through the southern town of Salalah, Reuters reported, after gathering for prayers in the parking lot of a mosque near a government office. It was the largest demonstration since late February, when protests in the northeastern port city of Sohar and the capital, Muscat, rattled the normally sleepy sultanate on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

“The Omani people are not afraid of protesting for as long as it takes for reform,” the cleric, Amer Hargan, told the crowd, Reuters reported.

Protests in Oman have focused their energy on official corruption and economic issues, such as better pay and relief from rising prices, rather than opposition to the four-decade rule of Sultan Qaboos bin Said. The Omani leader has responded in recent weeks with promises to increase government spending and create jobs.

In Yemen, more than a hundred thousand gathered in giant, dueling demonstrations in the capital, Sana, for the third Friday in a row as President Ali Abdullah Saleh continued to resist calls for his departure. Television images and photos posted to social media Web sites showed waves of antigovernment marchers surging through the streets of the capital and throngs rallying in support of the embattled president.

In the face of eroding international support for his 32-year rule, Mr. Saleh rallied supporters, telling them that he welcomed a regional plan to have him step down from power, but would agree to leave only “within the framework of the Yemen constitution,” the official Saba news agency reported, a stipulation that appeared calculated to put off any immediate departure.

The plan, finalized this week in meetings between Yemeni officials and representatives of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, calls for the president to hand over power immediately and step down in 30 days, with new presidential elections 60 days later. It also calls for an immediate end to protests and allows immunity from prosecution for Mr. Saleh and his family. The opposition, reluctant to call off demonstrations, has yet to offer an official response.

Demonstrators also filled streets in the city of Taiz. Reuters reported security forces firing into the air to keep rival protests from clashing.

Friday, the Muslim holy day, has become a focal point for protests against autocratic governments across the Middle East since a wave of uprisings began this winter.

But the streets were empty in Jordan for the first Friday since Jan. 7, when demonstrators began gathering to demand changes in the kingdom. Organizers had called for demonstrations, but changed their plans after Islamic fundamentalists, the Salafis, echoed those calls.

“We did not want to give the government and the regime a chance to accuse the opposition of being in cahoots with the Salafis,” said Zaki Saad, the head of the political bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a protest organizer. During demonstrations last Friday, Salafis armed with knives and rocks clashed with the police, wounding more than 80 police officers. “As a result of what took place last week, the political parties and the national parties who are calling for reform decided to cancel all their demonstrations until May,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, the country’s public prosecutor on Friday extended the detention of former president Hosni Mubarak another 15 days, to allow time for more interrogations, according to a spokesman in the public prosecutor’s office. Mr. Mubarak, 82, was first detained on April 13, a day after he was hospitalized in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm El Sheikh, where he has been staying since the three-week uprising that forced him to resign.

The former Egyptian autocrat, who ruled unchallenged for 30 years, faces accusations of financial corruption and ordering the killing of protesters. On Friday, a team of prosecutors was sent to question him, according to a statement issued by the public prosecutor’s office. Both his sons, Gamal and Alaa, were also arrested and are being held in a Cairo prison.

Reporting contributed by Mona el-Naggar from Cairo and Ranya Kadri from Amman, Jordan.