BBC reports that the United Nations has called an end to its military observer mission in Syria, days before its mandate was due to expire. The Guardian reports this morning that at least 40 people are thought to have been killed when government jets bombarded the provincial Syrian town of Azaz on Wednesday. In the Daily Telegraph, David Blair asks how long Israel will wait before launching an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to the Sun, British spies have warned that Israel is preparing for a ground attack on Iran before Christmas after commando dry runs in Iraq’s desert. A report in the Financial Times notes the families of US marines killed in a 1983 bombing in Lebanon suing UK bank Standard Chartered after the bank allegedly funnelled Iranian assets out of the US. Fears of an imminent Israeli military strike on Iran and the politics of a US presidential election in which the country is one of the few prominent foreign policy issues, have focused efforts on enforcing and toughening sanctions against Iran. The Daily Telegraph has obituaries of former Israeli spies Zvi Aharoni and Yaakov Meidad.

Several stories in the Israeli press today illustrate the intense debate taking place among the country’s political and military leadership on the potential of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Haaretz interviews former IDF intelligence chief Uri Sagi who opposes a unilateral Israeli strike. The Times of Israel talks to Amos Yadlin, who also served as head of IDF intelligence. In the interview, Yadlin takes issue with US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for undermining the US military option, and makes plain his conviction that Israel’s military option against Iran does not expire in the fall. The Jerusalem Post reports that in private meetings recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that setting Iran’s nuclear plans back a few years to buy time for regime change or other unforeseen developments would be good in its own right, even if Israel cannot completely take out Iran’s nuclear programme. Ynet and Israel Hayom, meanwhile, report that senior aides to the prime minister have expressed their anger at President Shimon Peres, who said in a recent interview that Israel could not carry out an attack on its own. Writing in Maariv, Ben Caspit analyses the dispute between the president and the PM. In other news, several papers report that the IDF believes Israelis are responsible for a firebomb attack on a Palestinian taxi in the West Bank yesterday. Five of the passengers were injured including two young children.