The Guardian online reports on comments made by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, via a satellite link, to the Saban Forum on the Middle East in Washington yesterday. Netanyahu said “Israel is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” and that “as far as President-elect Trump, I look forward to speaking to him about what to do about this bad deal”.

The i and Independent report that Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has pledged a “prompt response” if US President Barak Obama approves a US Senate vote last week to extend sanctions against Iran for a further ten years. The measures in question are separate from the sanctions which the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) agreed to lift as part of last year’s nuclear deal with Iran.

The i and Independent also cover comments made by former-US President Jimmy Carter in a recent New York Times op-ed, in which he called for Obama to recognise Palestinian statehood before leaving office in January.

In the G2 section of the Guardian, the recently-opened Palestinian Museum in Bir Zeit in the West Bank has been chosen as one of ten architectural highlights for 2016. It is described as an “optimistic fact on the ground, even if it did open without any exhibits”.

Also in the G2 section of the Guardian, is a review of a documentary which was broadcast last night on BBC 4, called “Forever Pure – Football and Racism in Jerusalem”. The documentary examines the pervasive anti-Arab sentiment rife among the La Familia supporters’ group which backs the Beitar Jerusalem football club, despite opposition to such attitudes from club officials.

In Syria, the Independent and the online edition of the Telegraph report that there is no longer any space in eastern Aleppo to bury the dead, with rebel forces told by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces that they face “inevitable death” unless they concede further territory there.

In the Israeli media, the top story in Maariv, which is also reported by Israel Hayom and Israel Radio, is an apparent agreement between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett, over the future of the West Bank outpost of Amona and its related legislation. Bennett and his party vehemently oppose the evacuation of Amona by 25 December, as ordered by the High Court, which ruled that Amona was built illegally on private Palestinian land. Jewish Home have proposed legislation to retroactively legalise Amona and other outposts in a similar situation. Coalition partner Kulanu has opposed the bill as it undermines the court decision. Bennett has apparently agreed to the evacuation of Amona, provided that legislation is passed to legalise other outposts.

The main item in Yediot Ahronot is the continuing revelations related to what has become known as the “submarine affair,” in which it is suspected that Israel’s purchase of German submarines was influenced by the business interests of Netanyahu’s lawyer. The latest report suggests that a prominent Lebanese businessman owns 30 per cent of the shares in the German shipyard which is slated to construct four advanced Israeli warships. Lebanon is considered to be an enemy state.

Israel Radio news reports on comments made by Prime Minister Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Saban Forum. The report says that Netanyahu reiterated his support for a two-state solution and that he suggested a regional approach may be the most likely way to advance peace. However, Kerry said that a regional peace and an agreement with the Palestinians could not be separated and criticised Israeli settlement construction.

Reporting from the forum, Yediot Ahronot’s Nahum Barnea provides an assessment of President Obama’s foreign policy, saying: “One of the fundamental mistakes of the Obama administration’s foreign policy was that it always tried to explain to others what was good for them—not what was good for America. That was perceived by the non-democratic world as chronic weakness”.