It is reported in the Times, Financial Times, Independent, Daily Mail and Independent i that Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi yesterday announced that four workers have been arrested in an alleged sabotage plot against one of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Although Salehi gave no further details of the supposed plot or its target, he claimed that “hostile” nations were responsible, prompting the Daily Mail and Independent i to speculate that Tehran would blame Israel for the alleged plot. Meanwhile, the Telegraph online reports that ordinary Iranians have made light of a reference made by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu in an interview on BBC Persian television last week, in which he appeared to suggest that everyday Iranians are prevented from wearing jeans.

The Independent i reports that a nine-year-old Israeli girl was shot and wounded over the weekend in Psagot, situated in the West Bank, by a suspected Palestinian gunman. Israeli officials are still searching for the culprit but the article quotes Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said that Palestinian media incitement was partly to blame, while a Hamas spokesman praised the attack. The report also notes that Israeli police have arrested fourteen Israeli teenagers suspected of so-called ‘price tag’ attacks, acts of vandalism against Palestinian property by those opposed to curbs on settlement building.

Serious clashes in Cairo yesterday between supporters of ousted premier Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian security forces are reported prominently in the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph, Times, Independent i and the Financial Times. All report that dozens were killed in street battles as supporters and opponents of the military regime gathered to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Most articles report that hundreds were arrested and that the protests signify the deep divisions which remain within Egyptian society.

The Times and the online editions of the Guardian, Telegraph and the Independent say that international experts yesterday began dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, sticking to a strict timetable of disarmament in accordance with a United Nations’ Security Council resolution passed last month. The Telegraph online covers comments made by US Secretary of State John Kerry who praised the Assad regime’s compliance, enabling the inspectors to quickly go about their work. The same publication reports claims in a German daily that Iran has permitted Syria to station fighter jets on its territory to protect them from attack.

In the Israeli media this morning, Maariv, Israel Hayom and Makor Rishon all focus on a speech delivered yesterday by Prime Minister Netanyahu at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv. Israel Radio news highlights Netanyahu’s assertion that real peace will only be achieved when the Palestinians recognise Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Meanwhile, Maariv’s headline highlights Netanyahu’s warning that “Iran wants to take over the Middle East” and emphasises his call to intensify international sanctions on Iran.

Maariv reports that there are Israeli and US concerns that although Syria’s chemical weapons are being dismantled, that the Assad regime is retaining its stockpile of biological weapons, which could end up in the hands of Hezbollah in neighbouring Lebanon.

Yediot Ahronot prominently covers the ongoing search for an attacker who shot and wounded a nine-year-old Israeli girl in the West Bank community of Psagot over the weekend. The report includes comments from the girl’s father and members of the community who have dismissed suggestions that the attack was criminally, not nationalistically motivated.