The Financial Times and Reuters report that Saudi oil production has rebounded to more than 8m barrels a day following the 14 September attacks on two oil facilities, with the faster than expected recovery helping to push the oil price down below $62 on Wednesday. The rise was corroborated by satellite heat maps of output from the fields and marks the restoration of more than three-quarters of lost production.

BBC News, the Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Independent, Financial Times and Reuters report that President Rivlin has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next Israeli next government. It comes after Netanyahu and Benny Gantz failed to agree a deal on a unity government. Netanyahu now has up to six weeks to try and put together a government, while Rivlin has said he will do everything he can to avoid a third general election this year. The final results, released overnight by the election commission, showed Blue and White swept 33 of the Knesset’s 120 seats and the Likud 32, while in third was the Joint List with 13.

The Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, ITV News, Sky News and Reuters report that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ruled out negotiations on its nuclear programme with the US before sanctions are lifted and said he was not interested in a “memento photo” with Donald Trump.

The Daily Mail reports that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has claimed that Israel is supporting ISIS and ‘takes care of their injured fighters’.  Rouhani claimed that “there is no terrorism throughout the world that matches the activities of Israel” and insisted that “Iran is a country that has brought peace in the region”. Speaking to Fox News in an interview, he claimed that Israel had treated ISIS jihadists in hospitals and supplied the terror group with Israeli weapons.

BBC News and Reuters report that Iran has lifted a detention order on the UK-flagged Stena Impero, but that it may not leave because of an ongoing inquiry. Foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi tweeted that the tanker was suspected of “violations and damages inflicted on the environment”. Stena Bulk said it was not aware of any formal charges.

Reuters reports that EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has insisted that the remaining parties to the JCPOA are committed to preserving the pact, though it is “increasingly difficult”. “It is in the interests of all to remain committed to the deal, but it is becoming increasing difficult,” Mogherini said.

Reuters reports that the Trump administration has taken steps to bar senior Iranian officials and their immediate family from entering the US as immigrants or non-immigrants, the White House said in a proclamation. Reuters reports that the Trump administration is imposing new sanctions on certain Chinese entities and people knowingly transferring oil from Iran in violation of US sanctions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday.

In the Financial Times, David Gardner maintains that the US maximum pressure campaign has backfired: “Pulling out of the [JCPOA) has emboldened Tehran and exposed Saudi Arabia”.

Reuters reports that the US is reaching out to Iranian officials to discuss the fate of US nationals held in the Islamic republic, a US State Department official said on Wednesday. “We’ve been offering, as has the president (Donald Trump) to meet with Iranians (over the issue). We sent a letter earlier this year […] (that) found its way there,” said the official.

Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia is in consultation “with friends and allies about the next steps to take” after the 14 September attacks on its oil facilities, but is waiting for the findings of an investigation, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told reporters on Wednesday.

The Telegraph reports that the US military will deploy drone-killing microwave weapons in response to the 14 September attacks on Saudi oil facilities.

Reuters reports that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met President Donald Trump at a reception in New York on Wednesday.

The Guardian reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson lavished praise on Egypt at a bilateral meeting with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi hours before the UK hosted a global media freedom conference with UK special envoy on media freedom Amal Clooney. Sisi has instigated a crackdown on journalists following the outbreak of protests against corruption in Egypt. The Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights has claimed that 1,003 people had been arrested including prominent academics.

Reuters states that Egypt is “on the edge”: “Scattered protests in Egypt in the past few days highlight the risk that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi could face broader dissent, driven by grievances over economic austerity and allegations of official corruption”.

The Telegraph reports that Shamima Begum has claimed to be “in a really bad way” mentally and wants to return to the UK for therapy. The 19-year-old, whose British citizenship was stripped by the Home Office this year, is currently languishing in Roj Camp in Syria, according to the Daily Mail. “I have no real friends,” she told the newspaper in an interview at the camp. “I have lost all the friends who came with me. Now I do not have anyone.”

The Independent reports that the husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has urged Prime Minister Johnson to lobby harder for her release after the prime minister met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Richard Ratcliffe said the crisis “will not be solved by smiling” and Nazanin was “utterly desolate and cannot cope much longer.” He spoke from New York where he met a number of officials on the side-lines of the UN General Assembly, hoping to encourage a more “robust and coordinated criticism of Iran”.

Reuters reports that US forces have killed 11 suspected militants in their second air strike in a week near the southern Libyan town of Murzuq, as the UN envoy warned of a growing risk of armed escalation and rights abuses in the country.

The Daily Mail reports that London Mayor Sadiq Khan was accused of supporting ‘Israeli Zionists’ after speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) fringe event. Khan was berated in the street after addressing the JLM event at conference in Brighton on Monday night, according to Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland.

Reuters reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he bears responsibility for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year by Saudi operatives “because it happened under my watch,” according to a PBS documentary to be broadcast next week.

Reuters reports that the Palestinian national soccer club championship was called off on Wednesday after Israel denied travel permits to Gaza players who had hoped to face off with their opponents in the occupied West Bank.

Reuters reports that endangered green turtles are being bred in captivity in Israel to help save the species from extinction.

In the Times, Esther Webber dissects Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

In the Independent, Negar Mortazavi maintains that President Trump’s impending impeachment inquiry will embolden Iran: “The American and Iranian presidents see a bilateral meeting from completely opposite perspectives”.

Gantz asked Arab parties not to support him: All the Israeli media report that Joint List leader Ayman Odeh said this morning that the Arab-Israeli political parties decreased their support to the president for Benny Gantz from 13 seats to 10 seats at Gantz’s request. Odeh, speaking to supporters on his Facebook page, added that Blue and White asked for this decrease since it would allow Gantz to go second in the government formation process after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inevitable failure – thereby putting pressure on other parties to support Gantz and allow him to successfully form a government. Senior Blue and White official Ofer Shelach confirmed in an interview with Army Radio that he did speak with Joint List leaders Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi but only to say they were important to Blue and White as citizens. “I didn’t dictate to the Joint List how it would recommend and in what format,” Shelach added. Earlier this week the Balad party (3 seats) inside the Joint List (13 total seats) refused to recommend Gantz to the President, thereby lowering Blue and White’s overall number of recommendations to 54 – compared to Netanyahu’s 55. Last night President Reuven Rivlin asked Netanyahu to form a government.

Likud not afraid of another election: Speaking on Reshet Bet Radio, Likud minister Yariv Levin said the Likud was not seeking a third election this year but was not afraid of it either. Levin gave two reasons for a potential increase in votes for the Likud and its right-wing allies: complacency on the part of right-wing voters in the last election (“’Bibi will win anyway,’ people were telling me”) and the realisation of Likud’s warnings regarding a left-wing/Arab government being formed by Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party.

Eisenkot says loss of ambiguity hurt security: In his first major interview (to Yediot Ahronot) since his retirement in January as IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot said that the loss of ambiguity in recent months surrounding Israeli strikes in neighbouring countries such as Iraq, Lebanon and Syria: “Was a serious error that hurt the security of the state.” The statement seemed to be a criticism of the increasingly public rhetoric on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when he openly confirmed that Israel was striking targets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. Eisenkot also added that a proposed defence treaty between Israel and the United States was “unnecessary,” adding that “there is no logic to it.” The full interview with Eisenkot will be published tomorrow.