The Financial Times and Guardian report US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s discussions with Saudi Arabian leaders on Monday. The Financial Times reports that Pompeo told Saudi leaders that Washington expects “every single person” responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to be held accountable as Riyadh continues to grapple with the fallout from the journalist’s killing. Pompeo said he also raised the issue of detained women’s rights advocates when he held talks with King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh on Monday. “Our expectations have been clear from early on: every single person who has responsibility for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi needs to be held accountable,” Pompeo told reporters. “They both acknowledged that accountability needed to take place.” Pompeo described the discussions as an engagement with “friends”. Pompeo is on a tour of Arab states to reassure allies of the administration’s commitment to the region in the wake of President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision last month to withdraw the 2,000 American troops fighting ISIS in north-east Syria.

The BBC reports that Turkey has dismissed President Donald Trump’s threat to “devastate” its economy if it attacks Kurdish forces in Syria after a pull-out of US troops. “You cannot get anywhere by threatening Turkey economically,” Foreign Minister Nevlut Cavusoglu said. US forces and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have fought in northern Syria against ISIS. Turkey regards the YPG as terrorists. Trump and Turkey’s president again discussed Syria on Monday. In a phone call, Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about the need to create a “security zone” in northern Syria, the Turkish presidency said. President Trump stressed that Turkey should not “mistreat the Kurds and other Syrian Democratic Forces with whom we have fought to defeat” ISIS, the White House said. Trump also “expressed the desire to work together to address Turkey’s security concerns” in north-eastern Syria.

The Guardian reports that Congress is expected to make an unprecedented challenge to President Trump’s authority to take the US into a war in the coming weeks, with a bipartisan measure calling for the end of US military involvement in the Yemen conflict. The Senate passed the measure, invoking the 1973 War Powers Resolution, last month but a parallel effort in the House of Representatives was sunk by the Republican leadership. Now with the House under Democratic control, there is plan to put forward identical measures in both chambers, which would put a permanent end to US refueling, logistical support, intelligence and special forces operations with the Saudi-led coalition. It would force Trump to accept the constraints on his executive power, or use his veto to continue involvement in the conflict, in support of an unpopular ally in Riyadh. It is unlikely his opponents could muster the two-thirds majorities in each house required to override the veto, but the standoff would highlight the deep divide between the President and Congress over Saudi relations, at a time when Yemen is on the brink of famine, and in the wake of the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Reuters reports that according to the Hurriyet newspaper, Turkey ordered the arrest of 192 people over suspected links to the network of the US-based Muslim cleric accused of orchestrating an attempted coup in 2016. Police operations targeting the followers of Fethullah Gulen have been carried out regularly since the failed coup and have recently gained momentum. Authorities in Istanbul and Adana ordered the arrest of more than 100 military suspects last week. The Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said it ordered the arrest of 50 military suspects – 3 lieutenants and 47 sergeants – as well as 55 people accused of using the ByLock messaging app, the newspaper reported. More than 77,000 people have been jailed pending trial, while 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs as part of the post-coup purges.

The BBC reports that, according to her husband, Iranian interrogators attempted to get Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British Iranian mother detained in Tehran, to spy on the UK in exchange for her freedom. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed for five years in 2016 after being convicted of spying, which she denies. Her husband said Iran’s decision to use the tactic on her in late December meant they were in a “scary place”. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, aged 40, has begun a three-day hunger strike in protest at being denied specialist medical care. It comes as Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office to discuss the case. Richard Ratcliffe, who met Hunt on Monday afternoon, described how his wife was told by members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that she would be “safer afterwards” if she spied on the UK Department for International Development and London-based organisation Small Media.

Reuters reports that according to Telecoms Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, Iran’s bid to launch a satellite has failed. This follows the country ignoring US warnings to avoid such activity. Washington warned Tehran this month against undertaking three planned rocket launches that it said would violate a UN Security Council resolution because they use ballistic missile technology. Azari-Jahromi said that the satellite, named Payam, failed in the third stage of the launch because it “did not reach adequate speed”, according to a report on the ministry’s website. The satellite was intended to be used for imaging and communications purposes and was mounted with four cameras, according to the report.

The Times reports that, according to a senior Kurdish official in eastern Syria, the British journalist John Cantlie, who has been held captive by ISIS for more than six years, may still be alive. Cantlie was kidnapped while reporting in northwest Syria in 2012. He has been used by ISIS to create English-language propaganda and was last seen in a video recorded in the early stages of the battle for Mosul in December 2016. Since then there have been conflicting accounts of his fate, with one saying that he had escaped to Raqqa, and another that he had been killed. Mustafa Bali, the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) spokesman, said that there had been unconfirmed information that Cantlie was “still alive and is moving around” Hajin. He told The Times that he was trying to confirm the rumour with “special sources”.

The BBC reports that Israeli divers are to search the Danube in Budapest with Hungarian help to recover remains of Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, visiting Budapest, said remains would be sent to Israel for a Jewish burial. In late 1944 pro-Nazi Arrow Cross fascists murdered thousands of Jews in Budapest, shooting many on the banks of the Danube. They were among some 565,000 Hungarian Jews who died in the Holocaust. Zaka, an Israeli victim identification group, is set to begin the search later this week. It says its divers will use a sonar device that can reach a depth of 150m (500ft) and scan within 130m to identify objects.

The Guardian has published an obituary for Moshe Arens, the Likud politician, three time Israeli Defence Minister and Foreign Minister.

Reuters reports that the US State Department criticised Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group on Monday for digging tunnels into Israel and stockpiling rockets, as Washington steps up efforts to isolate Tehran. “While Lebanon has the right to defend itself, that is the right of the Lebanese state alone,” said David Hale, U.S. under secretary of state for political affairs, after meeting Lebanese prime minister designate Saad al-Hariri. “It is unacceptable to have a militia outside the control of the state, and unanswerable to all people of Lebanon digging attack tunnels across the blue line to Israel or assembling an arsenal of over 100,000 missiles with which to threaten regional stability,” he added.

All the Israeli newspapers report that the new IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi will be promoted today to Lieutenant-General and assume his duties as the IDF’s 22^nd Chief of Staff.  Kochavi, aged 55, served in the Paratroopers Brigade as brigade commander, commander of the Gaza Division, commander of IDF Intelligence, OC Northern Command and deputy chief of staff. Kan radio reports that the ceremony conferring his new ranks will take place today at IDF HQ and will be attended by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, outgoing Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, IDF generals, former and current IDF commanders and family. The new Chief of Staff will then visit the Western Wall and the President’s Residence and will hold a meeting with the IDF General Staff. In the afternoon, Eisenkot will review the honour guard and begin life as a civilian. Yediot Ahronot describes Kochavi as a “reformer”, noting when he was head of military intelligence he developed new methods of information gathering, research and cyber capabilities and established new units. The paper also describes his “complicated starting conditions”, noting, “he is a new Chief of Staff, he was not the Prime Minister’s first choice, there is no full-time Defence Minister, there is also a new Deputy Chief of Staff, Eli Zamir, a young IDF Intelligence commander, Maj. Gen. Tamir Heiman, who did not grow up in intelligence, as well as an IDF General Staff that has known better days. Furthermore, elections will be held in 80 days, and Kochavi will have to act cautiously, responsibly and courageously to meet the challenges and to keep the IDF outside the political game.”

All the papers report the first public comments from former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, and the immediate attacks from right wing politicians. Yediot Ahronot refers to it as his “baptism of fire”. The paper reflects: “Fifty seconds, that is the length of time Gantz permitted himself to indulge us with a statement on an issue in the news. And that is also the exact length of time it took to ignite the right wing.  The reactions were so predictable and so prepared that it seemed that it didn’t matter what Gantz would have talked about—the nation-state law or the weather—the response would have been the same: Gantz is left wing… What did they expect, that Gantz would not express solidarity with the Druze? Show me a single high-ranking officer who would not have done exactly what Gantz did, and would not have said, on this occasion, that there are grounds for amending the law that so offended our Druze brothers. After all, even Bennett, immediately after the vote on the nation-state law, apologised to the Druze and said that there were grounds for amending it. So why did he fold yesterday?” While Israel Hayom leads with the “right wing attack: Gantz has proven that he’s left wing”. The paper says: “One small announcement was sufficient to reveal his intentions: leading the centre-left camp. To be the party that would grow to face the Likud head on—and his ability to do so should not be disparaged.”

Maariv reports on the first primary of the election season. The National Union, half of the Jewish Home party, has chosen its Knesset list. Bezalel Smotrich is the new leader, he beat Minister Uri Ariel in the party primary. Ariel is now likely to resign from political life. In second place is the party secretary general, Ophir Sofer, followed by Orit Struck, Yossi Cohen and Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu. The next stage will be the National Union’s merger with the Jewish Home. Unlike in the past, this time the National Union will demand equal representation on the Knesset list.

Haaretz reports that Israel denied entry to a British activist Garry Spedding. He was denied entry for five years in 2014 because Israeli officials said he failed to disclose on arrival a previous visit that he was entering Israel to engage in political activity in the West Bank. The Israeli authorities said he failed to get approval to travel to Israel on this occasion but Spedding said he applied to the Israeli Embassy in London many times but never received a response. He was held for five hours and then sent back to the UK.

Yediot Ahronot reports on scuffles that broke out at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City after guards refused to allow an Israeli policeman to enter for a routine security check because he was wearing a kippah. Firas Dibs, a spokesman for the Waqf, the Islamic authority that oversees the site, says dozens of worshippers scuffled with police after the guards closed the doors to the mosque and barricaded themselves inside. He says the director of the mosque was lightly wounded.