Reuters, the Times, the Daily Mail, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Bloomberg and the BBC  report on the continued investigation into, and consequences stemming from, the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Reuters reports that the United States imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudi officials on Thursday for their role in the killing. Among those sanctioned were Saud al-Qahtani, who has been removed from his position as a top aide to the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the Saudi Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi and members of a 15-person team Turkey has identified as being involved. The Guardian reports that Saudi Arabia says it will pursue the death penalty for five suspects charged with ordering and carrying out the killing in the latest effort to distance the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, from the murder. The Saudi public prosecutor claimed Saudi agents, including the head of forensics at the national intelligence service and members of Prince Mohammed’s security detail, had orders to abduct Khashoggi but decided to kill him when he resisted. The claim had been contradicted by an earlier Saudi finding that the murder was premeditated. The Times reports that Turkish officials poured scorn on the account, with one source calling it a “great work of fiction”. Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said: “We did not find some of his explanations to be satisfactory. Those who gave the order, the real perpetrators, need to be revealed. This process cannot be closed down in this way.” The BBC reports that the public prosecutor has concluded an intelligence officer ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, and not Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Bloomberg reports that a bipartisan group of six U.S. senators proposed new sanctions against Saudi Arabia including a suspension of arms sales. The senators, unhappy with the sanctions announced on Thursday by the Trump administration, would favour increased measures targeting the Saudi regime more broadly. The senators are also unsatisfied with actions taken so far to end the Yemen civil war.

The Times reports that according to officials, The White House is looking for ways to end the US exile of President Erdogan’s most bitter foe, Fethullah Gulen; a cleric living in Pennsylvania. Efforts to send Gulen back to Turkey are seen as an attempt by the US to persuade President Erdogan to ease off criticising Saudi Arabia, and in particular its crown prince. President Erdogan blames Gulen for masterminding the attempted coup against him in 2016. The White House has asked the justice department and FBI about extraditing Gulen, and asked Homeland Security for details of his residency status. Extraditing him would be part of a deal to win Turkey’s acquiescence to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman staying in power, it said. President Erdogan has made it clear he believes that the prince ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Times and Reuters report on ongoing developments within Yemen. The Times reports the Saudi-led coalition fighting a grueling civil war in Yemen has ordered a pause in the battle for the port city of Hodeida after hundreds of deaths on all sides. Coalition sources say that the temporary halt to violence coincides with a renewed drive to start new peace talks, led by the United Nations envoy Martin Griffiths. Aid agencies say that the starvation conditions suffered by millions of civilians caught between the warring parties are tipping over into famine, with children now dying regularly of malnutrition. Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Thursday that the kingdom supports U.N.-led peace efforts to end the war. “We support a peaceful solution in Yemen and we support the efforts of the U.N. special envoy to Yemen,” Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. “We are committed to delivering all the necessary humanitarian aid to our brothers in Yemen.”

Reuters reports that in Syria, the U.N. still sees big risks, despite a lull in the north-west. Thousands of Syrians are trapped by battles or face hard choices about returning home even though relative calm has held in the northwest for two months, the United Nations said on Thursday. Seven and a half years of war have left most remaining rebel forces boxed into north-western Idlib province.

The Israeli media focus on early election speculation.  Yediot Ahronot suggests both Aryeh Deri and Moshe Kahlon are keen for elections in March, whilst Netanyahu prefers a slight delay till May.  The paper quotes a senior official in the coalition saying that the prime minister was afraid of holding elections in March. “Netanyahu has lost points in public opinion, particularly among right-wing voters,” they said, “and he’s afraid that the defence issue and the public and political criticism about it will make a large impact if the elections are held in the next few months.”   The officials said that Netanyahu and the ultra-orthodox were looking into the possibility of only holding elections in May. “Netanyahu feels that early elections are being imposed on him at a juncture that he finds inconvenient,” they said, “so he’s trying to postpone them to a date that will be more convenient for him.”

Maariv includes the latest polling, among the questions they ask: Are you satisfied with the manner in which Netanyahu handled the latest round of warfare with Hamas in Gaza? Dissatisfied: 70% Satisfied: 19%.  They also ask; Lieberman has called for elections at the earliest possible date. Do you support or oppose that?  Support: 43% Oppose: 34% Don’t know: 23%.

All the papers report the angry protests by residents of southern Israel who demonstrated yesterday in Tel Aviv. Maariv reports 2,000 people were there, they blocked one of the central junctions outside the Kirya which houses both the IDF and Defence Ministry HQ. Yediot Ahronot quotes residents saying they are “ashamed of our leaders” while the crowd chanted “Bibi resign, Lieberman is looking for a friend,” and “Bibi resign, the south is burning” and “Let us grow up in peace.”  There was also anger over comments by Minister Hanegbi remarks that there was a difference between rocket fire on the Gaza periphery communities and on Tel Aviv.   Responding to those comments Netanyahu issued a statement saying, ” I heard an outrageous remark, and even following an apology, I have to put things straight.  Sderot is just like Tel Aviv. The security of the residents of the south is just as important as the security of the rest of Israel. We are in the middle of a campaign. Patience, cool and determination are necessary. We are preparing for what comes next.”Kan radio news reports Prime Minister Netanyahu met in his office with local council chairmen from the Gaza periphery communities and pledged to promote a plan to bolster their towns for the next two years. The plan would cost approximately half a billion shekels.  Finance Minister Kahlon, Interior Minister Deri, Chief of Staff Eisenkot and OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevy also attended the meeting. The military’s efforts to take action against terrorism from Gaza were presented during the meeting.

Haaretz focuses on the connections with the north, declaring “Putin’s interests in Syria and Lebanon are limiting Israel’s military options.” Amos Harel writes, “Playing chess with Hezbollah is one thing. Trying to figure out what Putin wants, in Syria and perhaps also in Lebanon, even as Hezbollah is trying to manufacture weapons there, is a completely different challenge.”  He suggests, “One reason for Israel’s exceptional caution in dealing with Hamas in the Gaza Strip is its growing concern over the northern front….the problem Israel faces in the north, in a nutshell, is the real danger that its operational window of opportunity is closing.”

In Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea criticises Avigdor Lieberman, “The press conference that Avigdor Lieberman called after his resignation had two goals: to reach the election campaign situated to the right of the Likud and Bennett, and to undermine Netanyahu’s image as Mr. Security. The political logic of resigning is clear, but politics is not the be all and end all. It also caused damage to Israel’s deterrence and to the public’s trust in the IDF. For Lieberman, that was just incidental damage: after all, he didn’t really mean it. But for the IDF, the damage was heavy. Lieberman is not the first defence minister to resign; neither is he the first to turn his resignation into leverage against the prime minister. But it seems to me that a defence minister who, in his resignation, attacks the assessments, the recommendations and the actions of the IDF is unprecedented.”  Israel Hayom includes the assessment, “Prime Minister Netanyahu does not want elections. After pondering  himself whether to move them up  and after being close a number of times this past year to doing so, the failure in Gaza and Lieberman’s resignation caused him to change his mind. Netanyahu wants to get as far away as possible from the embarrassing events, even at the price of giving the Defence Ministry portfolio to rival Naftali Bennett.   But events are beyond his control. The leader, who declared that ultimately he always gets what he wants, now finds himself fighting like a wounded lion in what appears to be his final political battle in this term. The chances of stopping this speeding train appear impossible, but Netanyahu is still trying. Holding elections with the fiasco in Gaza in the background cracks his image as the ultimate leader that he has built over the course of years: the exact opposite of what he had planned and hoped for in recent years.”

Haaretz reports “Despite the looming possibility of new elections in Israel, the Trump administration remains committed to releasing its Middle Est peace plan within the next two months. A White House official is quoted saying, “President Trump said in New York in September that we would be releasing the plan in two to four months. That remains our time frame,” the official stated. The same official added that they would avoid any “speculation” about how a possible election in Israel could impact the plan’s rollout efforts.  In recent weeks, the team inside the White House working on the plan led by Jared Kushner has hired more staff in anticipation of the plan’s release.”