The Financial Times this morning includes an interview with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he cautioned the UK not to re-establish diplomatic ties with Iran until the regime in Tehran stops calling for the destruction of Israel. Netanyahu also repeated his position that “no deal is better than a bad deal” with Iran, which he warned could look to make “cosmetic concessions” over its nuclear production, which could quickly be reversed in exchange for lifting sanctions.

The Telegraph reports that Iran’s foreign ministry has cancelled the annual New Horizon Conference on anti-Zionism, which Iranian officials have previously used as a platform to deny the Holocaust and call for Israel’s annihilation. However, the report quotes hard-line Iranians criticising the cancellation, some calling it a “capitulation.” The Times says that there has been an upsurge in hangings in Iran since the election of President Rouhani with 150 killed since he came to power. The Guardian online reports that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested what they termed “a network of homosexuals and Satanists” in the provincial city of Kermanshah, indicating continued intolerance of homosexuality by Iran’s rulers.

The Independent says that the Israeli civil rights group, Rabbis for Human Rights, has accused the Israeli army of not doing enough to prevent so-called ‘price tag’ attacks, acts of vandalism against Palestinian property by those opposed to curbs on settlement building. The criticism comes after olive trees were torched and cars vandalised in the Palestinian village of Jalud earlier this week immediately following the evacuation of the Geulat Zion outpost by the Israeli army.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Independent argues that the United States’ decision earlier this week to suspend some military aid to Egypt until there is greater democratic progress is too little too late and would have had an impact three months ago when Mohammed Morsi was ousted.

The Telegraph online says that the international team of experts charged with the task of dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles has already visited three out of an estimated twenty sites in the country, although the mission could get more complicated as the civil war continues to rage. Meanwhile, the Independent online covers a report by Human Rights Watch which accuses Syrian opposition groups of having carried out mass killings and having taken hostages in rural areas near Latakia, which is heavily populated by the Alawite community to which President Assad belongs.

Israel Radio news this morning reports that an Israeli man in his fifties was last night bludgeoned to death in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank. His girlfriend escaped with minor injuries, but the IDF deployed in the area to search for the attackers. Security officials apparently believe that the attack was most likely a terrorist incident but have not ruled out other motives.

Maariv includes a report that Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi, who is considered a close ally of Prime Minister Netanyahu, said Israel is capable of coping with the threat of a nuclear Iran on its own and should not rely on the assurances given by US President Obama. Israel Radio news and Israel Hayom report that the Israel Air Force completed an exercise simulating an attack on targets thousands of miles from Israel.

In Yediot Ahronot, unnamed Israeli officials are quoted criticising the decision of the United States to suspend some of its military aid to Egypt until greater progress is made towards democratization. One source is quoted saying that the United States is “playing with fire” and another commented “The American decision sends a negative message to the entire Arab world, that it forsakes friends and allies.”

Yediot Ahronot, Maariv, Haaretz and Israel Hayom all prominently report that Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva is making financial cuts and that approximately eight hundred jobs will be lost in Israel.