The Guardian and Reuters report that Iran will release the Stena Impero oil tanker imminently. Maritime authorities in the Islamic republic told Fars on Sunday that the Swedish-owned tanker would be released, confirming earlier remarks by the chief executive of Stena Bulk, the company that owns the vessel. “We received information this morning indicating that the ship Stena Impero is going to be released in a few hours,” Erik Hanell, chief executive at Stena Bulk, told Swedish television SVT on Sunday.

BBC News, the Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Financial Times, ITV News, Sky News and Reuters report that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has blamed Iran for the 14 September attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities ahead of a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Johnson said there was a “very high degree of probability” Iran was behind the drone and missile attacks on two oil facilities. The prime minister declined to rule out military intervention and said sanctions were a possibility.

BBC News, the Guardian, Telegraph, Reuters and Times report that Israeli-Arab lawmakers have recommended that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz become prime minister. Last week’s election put the Likud neck and neck with Blue and White, and the two are now vying to build a governing coalition. The Joint List says it wants to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first time since 1992 that an Arab political group has issued an endorsement for prime minister.

The Independent and Reuters report that Saudi Arabia has warned that if it finds that last week’s attack on its oil facilities were launched from Iranian territory then it would be considered an “act of war”. “We hold Iran responsible because the missiles and the drones that were fired at Saudi Arabia […] were Iranian-built and Iranian-delivered,” minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir told CNN on Saturday. “But to launch an attack from your territory, if that is the case, puts us in a different category […] this would be considered an act of war. Reuters reports that Riyadh is preparing to provide evidence to the UN General Assembly proving Iranian culpability for the 14 September attacks.

The Guardian and Reuters report that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will present a plan for Gulf security at this week’s UN general assembly. Rouhani made clear the Iranian proposal, dubbed the ‘Coalition of Hope’, would exclude the US, which would make it unpalatable to Gulf states who see Washington as an ally and protector. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that opposition to foreign forces in the Gulf was not a precondition for joining the coalition.

Reuters reports that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Driansaid on Sunday his country’s main aim at the UN General Assembly meeting is to de-escalate tensions between the US and Iran. Reuters reports that the US aims to avoid war with Iran and the additional troops ordered to be deployed in the Gulf region are for “deterrence and defence,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.

The Financial Times reports that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has stated that US President Donald Trump had “closed the door” to any negotiations with Tehran with his decision on Friday to toughen sanctions on the Iranian central bank. BBC News reports that President Rouhani has warned that foreign forces are threatening the security of the Gulf. Rouhani said foreign forces had always brought “pain and misery” and should not be used in an “arms race”.

The Times reports that Iran says it is planning joint naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman with China and Russia. Iranian news agencies reported that China and Russia, who have emerged as key strategic partners, had been invited to join naval exercises just outside the Strait of Hormuz. Brigadier-General Ghadir Nezami, a senior official, said the drill had both military and political purposes.

Reuters reports that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that Australia will not getting involved with the US in its pursuit of aims in relation to Iran, beyond a commitment to freedom of navigation in the region.

The Telegraph reports that the UAE has warned that Houthi rebels in Yemen are capable of striking Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Government officials told the Sunday Telegraph that if the Houthis was to hit the tourism and global business hubs they would be “attacking not only the UAE, but the world”.

In the Guardian, Nesrine Malik argues that Saudi Arabia will not attack Iran, but “may pay someone else to”.

In the Independent, Ahmed Aboudouh looks at the possible US military response to oil attacks in Saudi Arabia: “Is the US on a military collision course with Iran?”

BBC News, the Guardian and Independent report that Egypt has seen a second night of clashes and dozens of arrests in rare demonstrations against President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. About 200 demonstrators took to the streets in the port city of Suez demanding his resignation. Dozens were reportedly arrested and police responded with tear gas. The protests – which also took place in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday – are in response to corruption allegations against President Sisi’s government.

In the Independent, Borzou Daragahi argues that President Sisi was never a force for stability in the Middle East

The Guardian reports that the UN special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths has welcomed an offer from Houthi movement to halt attacks on Saudi Arabia. Implementation of the initiative by the Houthis “in good faith could send a powerful message of the will to end the war”.

Reuters reports that US Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday after meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that he would like to get NATO ally Turkey back in a joint manufacturing programme for F-35 fighter jets. “We’re trying to get them back in the F-35 program,” Graham said in New York. Ankara and Washington have clashed over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defences, which the United States says are not compatible with NATO defences and pose a threat to Lockheed Martin Corp’s F-35 stealth jets.

BBC News reports that a Lebanese man suspected of involvement in the hijacking of an American airliner in 1985 has been arrested in Greece. The man was detained on Mykonos after disembarking from a cruise ship on Thursday. His identity came up as being wanted by Germany during a passport check. The TWA Flight 847 was seized by militants thought to belong to the Islamist group Hezbollah, a claim they denied. A US navy diver was killed.

BBC News reports that women in Iran will be able to attend football matches, starting with a World Cup qualifier next month, according to Fifa. Fifa president Gianni Infantino said he discussed the issue with the Iranian authorities after the death of a female fan earlier this month. Infantino said they assured him that women would be allowed into matches.

The Times reports that Australia’s most highly decorated former soldier has been accused of instigating the murder of a prisoner in Afghanistan as members of the special forces have been giving evidence to a war crimes inquiry. Ben Roberts-Smith categorically rejected claims in the Australian media that he kicked a farmer off a cliff in 2012, then encouraged a second soldier to shoot him.

Reuters reports that a Taliban delegation met China’s special representative for Afghanistan in Beijing on Sunday to discuss the group’s peace talks with the US, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgency said.

The Independent reports that three teenage boys have been arrested after a girl claimed she was repeatedly gang-raped at a school in Israel. The 13-year-old alleged victim said she was tied up and assaulted in a basement bomb shelter during break times over a ten-day period.

The Jewish Chronicle reports that a row has broken out between left-wing activists and Jewish Labour members and residents after anti-Semitic material was distributed at Labour party conference in Brighton. Sussex Police confirmed officers had removed a banner hung near the Brighton Centre which portrayed a fighter plane, representing the “Israel lobby” attacking Jeremy Corbyn with “defamation”.

 

IDF gives awards to commandos for Gaza operation

The Israel media report on an IDF ceremony held yesterday for soldiers who took part in a mission last November to extract a team of Special Forces operatives after their cover was blown in Khan Younis inside Gaza. Channel 12 News included footage and a newly released radio recording as the helicopter pilot ensured no one was left behind before taking off, despite being under heavy gunfire. Yediot Ahronot includes a picture of IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi awarding a medal posthumously to the young son of the commander of the Special Forces team who was the only IDF fatality during the operation.  The identities of almost everyone involved remains classified.

 

Drone shot down in Syria was Iranian not Israeli

Israeli media report that a drone carrying explosives shot down and captured by Syrian authorities was not Israeli and was likely Iranian. The IDF’s Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee said: “Today we see proof that [the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force leader] Qassem Soleimani does whatever he wants in Syria and certainly doesn’t tell the Assad regime.”  According to Adraee, the drone’s location was in the area from which the Quds Force tried to launch a drone attack on Israeli targets last month.

 

Mother of IDF soldier to address UN Human Rights Council

Leah Goldin, the mother of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed in by Hamas in 2014, will address the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva later this week, calling on the international community to help return her son’s remains. Although Hamas is primarily responsibility, Goldin will stress that the UN and the international community, under whose watch the ceasefire that took their son was enacted, “bears both moral and legal responsibility for his return.”

 

40^th anniversary of Israeli nuclear test

According to a report in Foreign Policy magazine the US government was aware of an Israeli nuclear test conducted exactly 40 years ago.  Ynet reports that a US Air Force issued an alert after detecting the event and President Carter rushed to call a meeting in the White House Situation Room the very next day. The initial suspicion fell on South Africa, which was known to be working on a bomb, and even more so on Israel, which had close military ties with the South Africans.  It was the first report of an alleged Israeli nuclear test, though foreign publications had already reported that Israel possessed a nuclear arsenal.