Reuters reports that Lebanon appears to be edging towards a deal to form a new national unity government after more than seven months of wrangling over cabinet posts. Efforts to form a new government led by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri have been obstructed by rival groups’ conflicting demands for seats in a cabinet that must be formed in line with a finely balanced sectarian political system. “Matters in the government file are moving in a positive direction. If the situation continues with this positivity we will have a new government within a few days,” Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said.

Reuters and the BBC focus on Yemen. The BBC reports that according to pro-government officials, a ceasefire agreed by Yemen’s warring parties was broken minutes after coming into effect. The sides had agreed for a truce deal to be implemented in the port city of Hodeidah at midnight local time (21:00 GMT) on Tuesday, but there have been reports of sporadic clashes between the Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in the city, which is a vital gateway for aid. The rebels have reportedly shelled government forces in eastern Hodeidah. One pro-government official told AFP news agency that clashes were ongoing. Reuters  reports that the UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution that asks UN chief António Guterres to submit proposals by the end of the month on how to monitor the ceasefire in Hodeidah. Britain circulated the draft resolution to back the deal to the 15-member Security Council on Monday. It was not clear when it would be put to a vote. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the five permanent members (US, France, Britain, China or Russia) for it to pass.

The Independent, Guardian and the Telegraph report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son has been banned from Facebook for 24 hours after comments he left on the site. The Independent  reports that Yair Netanyahu was temporarily blocked after he published a post criticising the website as the “thought police” and shared previously banned content. Last week the social media platform deleted a post by Yair Netanyahu in which he said he would “prefer” if “all the Muslims leave the land of Israel”. The website also deleted a post in which he suggested “avenging the deaths” of two Israeli soldiers who were killed last week by Palestinian gunmen. The 27-year-old used the post to call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel. On Sunday he published screenshots of the deleted posts in violation of Facebook’s community guidelines.

The Financial Times reports that the US has charged two former business associates of Michael Flynn, the one-time White House national security adviser, with conducting an illegal lobbying campaign designed to pressure the US to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric whom Turkey claims was the mastermind of an attempted coup in 2016. Federal prosecutors accused Bijan Rafiekian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin of “a conspiracy to covertly influence US politicians and public opinion against a Turkish citizen living in the United States”. The indictment, which was unsealed on Monday, said Rafiekian and Flynn — referred to as “Person A” — formed a company that tried to use Flynn’s national security experience to “delegitimise” Gulen, as a Turkish request to extradite him was “meeting resistance” from the justice department. The indictment is the latest offshoot of the probe into Russian interference in the US election led by Robert Mueller.

The Times reports that Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, who has been indicted for war crimes, has become the first Arab leader to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad since the start of the civil war nearly eight years ago. Bashir was flown to Syria by the Russian air force for what human rights activists described as “a genocide summit”. The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in 2009. He stands accused of responsibility for war crimes and genocide in ending a civil war in the Sudanese province of Darfur. Assad has not been indicted, partly thanks to Russian vetoes at the UN Security Council, but is accused by human rights groups of overseeing mass murder in prisons and mass killings of civilians in the Syrian conflict. Neither country has yet said in detail what the two leaders discussed. However, there have been signs in recent months of the rehabilitation of both men, at least in the Middle East. Sudan has grown closer to Saudi Arabia and the UAE; it has been suggested that Bashir may have been used to pass a message concerning future relations between Syria and the Gulf states.

The Guardian reports that the Federal Australian Labour Party (ALP) has moved closer to embracing Palestinian statehood, with the national conference passing the strongest resolution in its history calling on the next Labour government to proceed with recognition. The resolution passed during the closing session of the 2018 conference, supporting “the recognition and right of Israel and Palestine to exist as two states within secure and recognised borders” and “calls on the next Labour government to recognise Palestine as a state”. Labour’s shift on Palestine follows the Government resolving to become one of the few countries in the world to formally recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The cross-factional agreement giving rise to Tuesday’s resolution to recognise a  Palestinian state says it will be a cabinet decision for a future Labour government. But, in seconding the motion, the New South Wales right-winger Tony Burke, who has been at the forefront of internal efforts to shift ALP policy to a more pro-Palestine stance, told the conference the resolution was clear in its intent. Burke said Labour had always recognised the right of Israel to have a land of its own, “and today we say the Palestinians also deserve a land of their own”.

Reuters reports that according to diplomats, Russia, Iran and Turkey are close to agreement on the composition of a Syrian constitutional committee that could pave the way for drafting a new charter followed by elections. The diplomats added that the foreign ministers of the three nations, who support opposing sides in Syria’s nearly eight-year war, will meet for talks today in Geneva, where they are expected to seek the UN’s blessing for their joint proposal. Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, who steps down at end of the year, has tried since January to clinch agreement on the identity of 150 members of a new constitutional committee to revitalise a dormant peace process. President Bashar Assad’s regime and the opposition fighting to topple him have each submitted a list of 50 names, but the three nations have haggled over the final 50 members from civil society and “independent” members, diplomats say. “The three countries are coming with a proposal for the third list, which has been the heart of the problem,” said one diplomat. Turkey and other nations would consider working with Assad if he won a democratic election, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Sunday, two days before coming to Geneva to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Iran’s Javad Zarif.

The Guardian reports that the online bookings platform Airbnb has denied a claim by Israel’s tourism minister that it had reversed a decision to stop listing accommodation in settlements in the occupied West Bank. The tourism minister, Yariv Levin, had said on his Facebook page that the firm “will not enforce its decision to withdraw proposed bookings from its website”. But Airbnb later said: “The information published earlier today was inaccurate.” The firm said on Monday that it “unequivocally” rejects the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which urges wide-ranging economic measures to protest against the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Airbnb said it was committed to developing business in Israel, to allow “more tourists from around the world to enjoy the wonders of the country and its people”.

The BBC reports that an Iraqi religious leader has laid a foundation stone for the rebuilding of Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri, which was damaged by ISIS militants. The head of the Sunni Muslim Endowment, Abdul Latif al-Humayim, was joined by UN and EU dignitaries for the ceremony. The mosque, whose leaning minaret was one of Mosul’s most famous landmarks, is where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014. The jihadist group blew it up last year as government forces retook the city.

In the Israel media, Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Hayom report on the death of Rona Ramon, aged 54, after a long battle with cancer. Her husband, Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force (IAF) pilot who took part in the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981, was killed in the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003. Their son, Capt. Assaf Ramon, also an IAF pilot, was killed in a training accident in 2009. Rona created the Ramon Foundation, which seeks to provide the young Israeli generation with “academic excellence, social leadership and ground-breaking courage”. After her husband’s death in 2003, Rona and her children returned to Israel, where she decided to study for a master’s degree in creative writing. Yediot Ahronot quotes from an interview she gave the paper at the time, where she explained her decision:”It was clear to me that I was going to explore my experiences in an effort to find some kind of an answer. I started collecting testimonies from families who experienced sudden death, which is different from death resulting from a disease that allows time to say goodbye …When sudden death occurs, life as we know it is suddenly lost. Our foundations break apart and the pieces must be gathered, even though the light at the end of the tunnel cannot be seen yet. I have found studies that deal with the feelings of widows, who ask themselves: ‘Are we normal?’ and I understood them.”  She is survived by three children. Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “My wife Sara and I express deep sorrow over the passing of Rona Ramon. Rona stood bravely after the deaths of her husband Ilan and her son Asaf, our beloved pilots, may their memories be for a blessing. She battled cancer with the same bravery, but to our sorrow, succumbed today. We will always remember her and her splendid family. May her memory be for a blessing.” President Reuven Rivlin said: “Rona Ramon has gone from us as she lived among us – noble, clear and full of belief. Ilan and Asaf touched the skies, and Rona touched our hearts. We will never forget how you built from out of the ruins, how you endowed meaning in infinite pain, how your creativity filled the never-ending void. We will continue to bask in your light, the light you gave ‘for those who do, despite the pain and from those who create, from the darkness’, and will look up to the skies to search for you, three bright stars.”

Kan radio reports that Palestinian Authority (PA) Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh met in Israel with Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and other senior security officials to discuss ways to lower tensions in the West Bank. According to Palestinian sources, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has instructed the Palestinian security organisations to maintain security cooperation with Israel. The PA is demanding that Israel stop the demolitions of terrorists’ homes on the grounds that the demolitions cause agitation. After the meeting, al-Sheikh told Palestinian television that a message had been relayed to Israel that the PA would not continue to sit by idly in light of the mounting and dangerous Israeli escalation.

Maariv says Russia has instructed Lebanon to address the problem of Hezbollah tunnels that penetrate into Israel from its territory. Israel considers the Russian involvement to be an important step that sends a message to Hezbollah that it must not escalate the situation along the border in response to Israel’s actions. Israel believes that the Russian demand will have a much greater impact than a similar demand that was presented by UNIFIL following an Israeli request. However, the paper cautions that: “It is still too early to know whether the Russians will enforce their demand on the ground, but the very fact that they received and confirmed the information and the findings shown them last week by Operations Directorate Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva and other top IDF officers at a meeting in Moscow that was described as good — is an important step unto itself.”  Furthermore, “Russia’s relations with Hezbollah are important mainly because of their interests in Syria and their joint war, together with Iran and Bashar Assad’s army. That is why Israel believes that when the Russians talk to top Lebanese government officials, the message is actually to Hezbollah. Israeli officials believe there is still a long way to go before the Russian demand is translated into practical action by the Lebanese army to destroy the tunnels. Nevertheless, it seems that the Russians have delivered a clear message saying that if the situation on the border escalates, the responsibility will be Lebanon’s. Israeli officials believe that the fact that the Russians clearly accepted Israel’s position indicates an improvement in relations between Jerusalem and Moscow, which were strained after the crisis of the Russian plane that was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles.” Reinforcing this view the Jerusalem Post reports on a meeting yesterday in Moscow between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Jewish Agency head Isaac Herzog. Lavrov told Herzog that Israeli and Russian militaries are again cooperating closely. Lavrov said that representatives of the IDF and Russian Army general staffs have met “several times” and that the meetings were “professional”. He added that he hopes the cooperation will continue “in a way that does not endanger the lives of Russian soldiers, does not create problems for the efforts of the Syrian Arab Republic and us to fight terrorism, and in a way that ensures the security of Israel, which we believe is very important for an overall settlement.”

Haaretz and Maariv report that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit opposed the bill to expel families of terrorists from their homes. “The attorney general’s position on the bill, as it was presented to the cabinet ministers, is that the bill currently being proposed for legislation is severely damaging to the liberty and property of the family members who are supposed to be expelled, and that this is to be done due to the acts of another family member and without proof of danger that they themselves pose. There is therefore a constitutional impediment to advancing the proposed legislation. Furthermore, the bill creates significant difficulties on the international level.” Maariv quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu who told the Likud faction meeting: “The expulsion of terrorists is an effective tool and, in my opinion, its benefit surpasses its damage.” Regarding the opposition that was voiced by the justice system, Netanyahu said: “They say that it contradicts the legal rule as it is defined, and that will certainly be challenged legally in the future, but there is no doubt about the effectiveness of this tool.”  Commenting on the demolition of terrorists’ homes, Netanyahu said: “We are doing everything to destroy their houses. I am looking into the procedure. We’ll see if something can be done with the legal restrictions.”