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Media Summary

Israel and UAE sign free trade agreement

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The BBC and Reuters reports on Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s video message about Iran using documents stolen from the IAEA global atomic watchdog to help conceal that it was carrying out banned nuclear activity. Bennett showed what he said were copies of Iran’s “deception plan”, including handwritten notes in Persian which said Iran needed to prepare a “cover story”. Iran denies it had a secret programme, saying Israel forged the alleged proof. Bennett’s revelation comes ahead of a meeting next week where International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi is due to present a report on its probe into unexplained nuclear material found at three undeclared sites in Iran.

The Financial Times and Reuters report that Israel signed a free trade agreement with the UAE on Tuesday, its first with an Arab state and one which eliminates most tariffs and aims to lift their annual bilateral trade to more than $10 billion.

The BBC, Reuters and The Times also reports that protests against authorities in Iran in the wake of a deadly building collapse are continuing a week after the incident, videos on social media show. Angry demonstrators have taken to the streets nightly across Khuzestan province, where the unfinished building fell down last Monday. The death toll rose to 34, with four people still missing, the state news agency Irna reported on Tuesday. Demonstrations have also been held in other parts of Iran, with shouts of “Death to Khamenei” – a reference to Iran’s supreme leader – heard on unverified video posted on social media and said to have taken place in the south of the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Monday night.

The Times notes a former Irish soldier has been found guilty of joining ISIS, having travelled to Syria and married a British jihadist there. Lisa Smith, from Dundalk in Co Louth, was convicted by three judges at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin after a nine-week, non-jury trial. Smith, a mother of one, left the Irish military after she converted to Islam in 2011. She travelled to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria, first in 2013 then from 2015, by which point it had the terrorist group had declared a “caliphate”.

The Independent reports that a former Qatari princess has been found dead after suspected drug overdose at her home in the Spanish town of Marbella. Kasia Gallanio had been denied custody of her three daughters in a bitter court dispute and was living in Spain while battling problems with alcoholism and depression.

The Times also reports on Israel’s travel warning to Turkey. It claims the government has told a hundred of its citizens in Turkey they must leave the country amid fears of Iranian attacks, as Tehran published the names of five apparent targets days after the assassination of a senior military officer.

Archaeologists working near Cairo have uncovered hundreds of ancient Egyptian coffins and bronze statues of deities, according to the Guardian. The discovery at a cemetery in Saqqara contained the 250 coffins, 150 bronze statues and other objects dated to the late period, about 500BC, Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities said.

Lebanon’s new legislature narrowly elected veteran Shi’ite Muslim politician Nabih Berri for a seventh term as speaker of parliament in a chaotic first session that showed the deep political divisions likely to impede decision-making, reports Reuters.

In the Israeli media, Kan Radio notes that the Jerusalem District Court yesterday denied a motion by the prosecution in the Netanyahu trial to amend the indictment in Case 4,000, sparking a flurry of speculation about the ruling’s implications for the state’s case overall. Commentators described the ruling as a blow to the prosecution that reduced the likelihood of a conviction in the bribery charge but refrained from calling the trial as a whole a lost cause. Likud MKs were somewhat less nuanced. Maariv quotes Miri Regev as saying: “The court’s ruling brings us closer to a reverberating acquittal in the ‘bribery’ case against former Prime Minister Netanyahu. From day one we argued that there isn’t anything because there wasn’t anything. The only instruction meeting that was held was an instruction meeting to oust an incumbent prime minister [that was held] in the basements on Salah a-Din Street in the State Attorney’s Office. The judges’ ruling necessitates forming an immediate commission of inquiry into the State Attorney’s Office and everyone who had a hand and everyone who framed Netanyahu.”

Israel Hayom writes that Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi arrived in Cyprus on Monday night to take part in a joint Israeli-Cypriot military drill. The exercise, called “Beyond the Horizon,” will last for the remainder of this week and will include land, sea and air forces. The objective of the exercise, the largest of its kind held with Cyprus to date, is to preserve combat readiness in a range of scenarios and includes units from its 98th Paratroopers Division and Israeli Air Force fighter jets, helicopters and transport aircraft, special forces from the Israeli Navy such as the Shayetet 13 commando unit, as well as the elite Yahalom Combat Engineering Unit and Intelligence Directorate personnel.

Maariv follows the phone conversation last night between Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about security tensions in light of Jerusalem Day events. According to Arab media reports, Chairman Abbas informed the US, Egypt and Jordan that he intends to respond to Israel’s conduct on Jerusalem Day in implementing the PLO Central Council’s decisions, including freezing recognition of Israel. According to the reports, Abbas’ move comes after Jordan and Egypt failed to persuade the US administration to adopt a plan to try and resume peace talks between Israel and the PA. Sources also said Abbas is also angry with the US’s failure to fulfil its promises to the PA, including the reopening of the American Consulate in Jerusalem. The US State Department said that during the conversation with Abbas, “Secretary of State emphasised the importance of the US-Palestinian relationship and the administration’s support for a two-state solution in the negotiations.” Ynet writes that US Blinken also stressed “the importance of ending investigations into the death of Palestinian-American journalist Sheerin Abu Aqla,” adding: “We remain committed to opening a consulate in Jerusalem. We continue to believe this can be an important way for our country to engage and provide support to the Palestinian people.”

Walla reports that a Palestinian woman was shot this morning after moving toward soldiers armed with a knife at a security post at the al-Aroub Junction in the Gush Etzion region. The woman was evacuated for medical treatment by the PA and but later died. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the alleged attacker as Ghufran Haroun Hamed Warasneh, a former security detainee. There has been a string of similar instances in the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, an assailant tried to stab soldiers at a West Bank junction. He was neutralised and needed medical attention. A few days earlier, the police arrested a Palestinian resident of Tulkarm on suspicion of attempting to carry out an attack in Israel. He was arrested near the settlement of Tzur Yitzhak in Sharon with a stone, a knife and a letter indicating his intention to carry out an attack in Israeli territory.

Commenting in Israel Hayom on Justice Minister Gidon Sa’ar’s reported talks with the Likud on forming an alternate government led by opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Matti Tuchfeld writes: “Gideon Sa’ar said aloud yesterday what a lot of other people think, including within the coalition: A government that can’t get critical bills passed into law has no right to exist. Meanwhile, the scent of elections is wafting in the air. Lieberman began to ratchet up his rhetoric against the Haredim, in what appears to be less a concession on being able to get a state budget passed and more like an election campaign. Sa’ar is tugging the rope to the right, while MKs on the left have also become far less inclined to make concessions than they used to be … by all assessments, even if a solution is found to the Judea and Samaria [West Bank] civil law bill, the coalition’s next challenge is waiting right around the corner.”

Israel Hayom reports that several revolutionary steps are being planned by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to reduce the demographic disparity in the Galilee and Negev and increase the supply of apartments throughout Israel. Next week, the National Council for Planning and Construction is scheduled to discuss Shaked’s proposal to significantly increase the number of housing units in every rural community in Israel. This would mean tens of thousands more houses in the rural sector. The proposal calls to increase the maximum number of houses in every community in the distant periphery, meaning the Galilee and Negev, by 50 per cent. In the closer periphery, such as the outskirts of Haifa, Ashkelon and the Adulam area, the number of houses is to be increased by 30 per cent. In central Israel, it is to be increased by 15 per cent. Shaked is also proposing to permit splitting apartments in the rural sector throughout Israel. This would not change the apartments’ legal status, and they will continue to be listed as single apartments in the Land Registry.