The Independent reports that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to tell US President Obama in a meeting at the White House today, that there are no further compromises that the PA can make in peace talks with Israel. According to the report, Abbas will demand that Israel freeze West Bank settlement construction as a condition for extending peace negotiations. The Telegraph covers comments made by Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon in an interview on Israeli television, during which he said that Abbas is not a true partner for peace and questioned whether a peace agreement would be concluded in his lifetime.

The Times suggests that the BBC Trust will soon release a report which upholds a complaint over an item on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in 2011, which appeared to suggest that Israel was not prepared to withdraw from land captured in 1967 in exchange for peace. Such a concession on land has been a key feature of Israeli peace treaties with both Egypt and Jordan and its negotiations with the Palestinians.

The online editions of the Times, Guardian and Independent all cover an interview with the Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson in the Observer, in which she vigorously defends her decision to step down as an Oxfam ambassador. Johansson took the decision after defending her appearance in an advert for SodaStream, which maintains a factory in the West Bank, explaining that the factory provides equal employment for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

The Independent, Financial Times, Times, Independent i, Metro and the online editions of the Telegraph and Guardian all report that Syrian government troops and Hezbollah fighters yesterday captured the strategic town of Yabroud, an opposition stronghold near the Lebanese border. Yabroud is an important supply route for opposition groups and overlooks the route from Damascus to Homs.

The Guardian online covers comments made yesterday by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif, who said that no deal is expected during this week’s round of talks in Vienna between Iranian officials and representatives of the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany), over Tehran’s nuclear development. Instead, Zarif suggested that there would be discussion on the “dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear programme.

In an op-ed in the Guardian, Yahia Hamed, a former-minister in the government of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi attacks the record of Egypt’s current military-led government and says that the situation for everyday Egyptians has become increasingly difficult since Morsi was overthrown last summer.

In the Israeli media, headlines focus on today’s expected meeting between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and US President Obama. Israel Hayom says that Abbas is expected to place new conditions on the possible extension of peace talks. More specifically, the Walla news website says that Abbas will demand a new Israeli construction freeze in the West Bank and the release of high-profile Palestinian prisoners including Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for his role in terror attacks during the Second Intifada. Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Nahum Barnea says that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders are trying to avoid blame for the potential failure of peace talks. Meanwhile, Haaretz suggests that Obama will pressure Abbas into taking further positive steps towards peace.

Yediot Ahronot reports that the Knesset is set to discuss imposing further oversight on the World Zionist Organisation’s Settlement Division, which is responsible for the allocation of much land in the West Bank for settlement use.